Apple won, of course.

Quite frankly, I have always thought that Apple Corps Inc.’s string of legal actions against Apple Computer was kind of ludicrous. I mean, really, aside from the fact that both use the name “Apple”–about as common a word as you can get–within their corporate names, there’s little or nothing that would make you confuse the two. Apple Corps vs. Apple Computers. The Beatles’ tax shelter corporation used a photo of a whole green apple as a logo; Apple Computer used a rainbow or solid-color apple with a bite out of it (with the meaning of the Apple–taking knowledge–being wholly different from the Beatles’ use of the fruit). As the Apple Computer attorney put it, even “a moron in a hurry” would not confuse the two.

Even after Apple made the iTunes Music Store and iPod, there could not possibly be any confusion. Did anyone ever confuse anything by Apple for anything by the Beatles? Did anyone decide not to buy an Apple Corps product because they thought Apple Computer was too uncool?

And seriously, how could anything that Apple has done ever cost Apple Corps any money at all? What, people bought fewer Beatles songs because they thought Apple Computer ran the show? It really all has the smell of the Beatles firm simply trying to milk the maker of the Mac line for cash. They already got about $27 million out of the computer maker, probably far more than any confusion could possibly have cost them (if, indeed, they did not actually profit from any chance association). Heck, having the Beatles’ music on the iTMS would probably have prompted me to buy some; this lawsuit business prompts me not to. Apple Computers, even with the iTMS, is not a record label.

This really should be the end of it–but unfortunately, probably not. Apple Corps is set to appeal the ruling.