Apple's lawyers call suit ridiculous

LONDON — A lawyer for Apple Computer dismissed as ridiculous Thursday a long-running trademark-infringement claim by another cultural icon, the Beatles' Apple Corps recording label.

"Even a moron in a hurry could not be mistaken about that," the distinction between the computer company's iTunes online music business and a recording company such as Apple Corps, Apple Computer attorney Anthony Grabiner said.

At the core of the Apple v. Apple dispute are conflicting interpretations of a 1991 settlement that ended more than a decade of legal wrangling between the two companies, each of which agreed not to tread on the other's sphere of business.

In Britain's High Court, Grabiner rejected Apple Corps' claim that the tech company's iTunes Music Store violated the agreement.

He said the computer company had paid the Fab Four's firm $26.5 million as part of the settlement and in return had received "a considerably expanded field of use." The terms of the deal were kept confidential at the time.

Grabiner said the "distribution of digital-entertainment content" was permitted.

"Data transmission is within our field of use," he said. "That's what [the agreement] says and it is inescapable."

Apple Corps' lawyer Geoffrey Vos had argued that Apple Computer's music-distribution business "was flatly contradictory to the provisions of the agreement."

Its lawsuit seeks to force Apple Computer to drop its logo from the iTunes Music Store and pay unspecified damages.