'Apple Music' can't be trademarked, says appeals court
An independent musician has beaten Apple over the company's attempts to trademark the term "Apple Music," which he claimed would lead to confusion with his own "Apple Jazz" term.
Court rejects Apple's request for a rehearing
Musician Charlie Bertini opposed Apple's application for a federal trademark for "Apple Music" when that streaming service was launched. In 2021, the US Trademark Office ruled in favor of Apple, specifically because Apple claimed that it had a prior claim.
That claim was to do with how Apple acquired sound recordings, and a 1968 "Apple" trademark, when it acquired The Beatles' firm Apple Corps in 2007. Bertini had been using his "Apple Jazz" term since 1985, but did not register it as a trademark for entertainment services until 1991.
However, a Federal Circuit panel then unanimously reversed the first decision. It ruled that Apple could not tack its prior use of Apple Corps trademark onto its more recent streaming service.
Apple subsequently requested a rehearing of the case, specifically asking for the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) to narrow down the categories in the trademark application.
As part of its request, Apple claimed this case required "an answer to a precedent-setting question of exceptional importance."
Apple's request for a rehearing would have the TTAB no longer consider Apple Music in services such as "[a]rranging, organizing, conducting, and presenting concerts [and] live musical performances." Apple believed that would distance Apple Music from Apple Jazz, and so its trademark could then be possible.
However, IP Watchdog reports that the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) has now denied Apple a rehearing.
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Apple Computer did not acquire Apple Corps, only the right to use the name Apple with music.
From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps)
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In 1978, Apple Records filed suit against Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) for trademark infringement. The suit was settled in 1981 with the payment of $80,000 ($260,748.95 in 2022) to Apple Corps. As a condition of the settlement, Apple Computer agreed to stay out of the music business. A dispute subsequently arose in 1989 when Apple Corps sued, alleging that Apple Computer's machines' ability to play back MIDI music was a violation of the 1981 settlement agreement. In 1991 another settlement, of around $26.5 million, was reached.[57][58] In September 2003, Apple Computer was again sued by Apple Corps, this time for introducing the iTunes Music Store and the iPod, which Apple Corps asserted was a violation of Apple's agreement not to distribute music. The trial opened on 29 March 2006 in the UK,[59] and in a judgement issued on 8 May 2006, Apple Corps lost the case.[58][60]
On 5 February 2007, Apple Inc. and Apple Corps announced a settlement of their trademark dispute under which Apple Inc. took ownership of all of the trademarks related to "Apple" (including all designs of the famed "Granny Smith" Apple Corps Ltd. logos),[61]and licensed certain of those trademarks back to Apple Corps for their continued use. The settlement ended the ongoing trademark lawsuit between the companies, with each party bearing its own legal costs, and Apple Inc. continued using its name and logos on iTunes. The settlement includes terms that are confidential.[62][63] Apple Computer later relied on the Beatles’ first use in 1968 to establish ownership and priority of the trademark APPLE MUSIC prior to a 1985 use by a musician of APPLE JAZZ for musical concerts.[64]
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...and lost again, as we now know. Apple Corps is going strong, as you might imagine with its catalogue, remains a private company owned by Paul McCartney, Ringo Star, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison, and soon is to release 'the last Beatle record'.