Antitrust case against Apple on its last legs

CNBC ^ | December 9, 2014 | Mark Berniker

[Swordmaker]

The antitrust lawsuit against Apple is on its last legs after a federal judge dismissed the plaintiffs' last remaining witness.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said Monday she was "concerned" and "troubled" by the remaining plaintiffs' witness in the class action case.

[Beowulf9]

Agreed. I am not thinking of Jobs. I am thinking of the advertising department artist who created the logo.

[Swordmaker]

My own complaint was about the way Apple Computer handled their transition from being a computer company to being (in part) a media company, which IMO was in conflict with the the original agreement with Apple Corps to not get involved with that.

I can agree with that, Dayglo. . . but notice something when you come back tomorrow. I know you aren't upset. I, too, am a great supporter of IP.

Apple was royally ticked off by the original Apple Corps lawsuit about the name and logo. . . TradeMark experts told them it was baseless because they weren't in the music business and it was essentially a nuisance suit at the time generated by lawyers. The lawyers claimed that Apple WAS a music company because the Macintosh could generate alert sounds! Steve Jobs memorialized the lawsuit by naming one of their new default alert sound effects "Sosumi." I think that validates your theory.

However, the lawyers at the time were of the opinion because this was the Beatles suing Apple, that it was likely a jury would be swayed by their fame and find in the favor of the famous rock group, not by the letter of TradeMark Law. . . so Apple settled out of court for $80,000 and with the agreement that they wouldn't make music specifically on physical media and Apple Corps wouldn't make computers.

Apple's foray into music was under the name iTunes. . . not AppleTunes. Apple's music players and even their phones and Tablets were not Apple Phones or Apple Tablets, but iPhones and iPads. . . avoiding the name Apple explicitly. The name of the company was printed only on the back of the devices in very small print. The Apple logo was missing. . . until 2007. However, in mid 2007, Apple bought all rights to the Apple name and Logo from Apple Corps Inc. and settled all lawsuits with the Beatles. They licensed back to Apple Corps the appropriate logos and names and everyone is happy. Shortly afterwards, the Beatles catalog appeared in the iTunes Store. . . and both companies got richer.