Disco download opens Apple vs. Apple case

The first notes have sounded in an epic trademark battle between the Beatles' Apple Corps. Ltd. and Apple Computer Inc.

A London courtroom was lined with computers, monitors and at least one iPod Wednesday as Apple Corps. lawyer Geoffrey Vos demonstrated the iTunessoftware by downloading disco hit Le Freak.

Apple Corps., the Beatles' record company, is suing the computer company claiming it violated a 1991 agreement by using the Apple name and logo to sell music downloads through its online music store, iTunes.

Apple Computer can go into the recorded music business in any way they want. What they cannot do is use the Apple [trade]mark to do it,Vos said in his opening statement.

Vos said the Apple computer logo, a cartoon apple with a bite taken out of its side, was intimately associated with the process of buying songs from the iTunes site.He also played a television ad of British band Coldplay promoting iTunes, with the Apple Computer logo prominently displayed.

The Beatles' Apple Corps. logo is a shiny green apple. Established in 1968, the company is owned by surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono,and the estate of George Harrison.The company has so far refused to license any Beatles songs for downloading.

Apples iPod portable device has spawned a downloading surge, with more than one billion songs downloadedaround the world.

Back in 1991, Apple Corps. sued Apple Computer resulting in a $26-million US payment by the computer company and a deal to limit the use of its Apple trademark in the music business.

California-based Apple Computer, founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniakin 1976, disagrees with the implications of the 1991 deal: Unfortunately, Apple and Apple Corps. now have differing interpretations of this agreement,the company said in a statement released before the trial.

Anthony Grabiner, lawyer for Apple Computer, is scheduled to give his opening remarks Thursday.The trial is expected to run through next week.