Buried along with her name… nobody came

Today is the day that yet another lawsuit against Apple begins.
Were you confused there by which “Apple” I was referring to? Of course you weren’t. But the folks at Apple Corps are worried that you might be. At least, that’s their story.
The latest lawsuit — for there have been several — is the hot topic today in the news media and on Apple fan blogs.
Apple Corps started out as a big idea by the Beatles back in 1968, but it was run poorly and fell apart pretty quickly. It included subsidiaries such as Apple Films, which made only a couple arty documentaries; Apple Electronics, which created impractical and unsellable radios; Apple Publishing, which was the music publishing arm but didn’t publish the Beatles music; Apple Retail, which opened a boutique in London which only lasted 8 months despite the hype of being owned by the Beatles; Apple Studio, a recording studio that wasn’t fit for recording in; and Apple Records, which was the only profit-making part of the venture. Still, Apple Records only released the Beatles music, it didn’t own it.
So, isn’t it interesting how Apple Computer has dipped its toe into many of these business areas and made a huge success of them?
Today, Apple Corps is simply a holding company that licenses Beatles products… but still doesn’t actually own the Beatles music. It is a company that is rapidly losing what little value it once had as the Beatles themselves begin to pass into history. The fact that the Beatles catalog is not available for download anywhere at any price is indicative of the failure to properly market and keep the Beatles alive, and I fear that their music will die a lingering death save for a few hardcore fans — the story of many 1960s pop icons. They have not embraced the future (even their website is a placeholder, in 2006), and they should be consigned to the bin.
Apple Corps is keeping itself alive only by suing Apple Computer with spurious claims of trademark infringement. My own opinion is that Apple Corps is not a viable business that is threatened by Apple Computer, that they have nothing other than the name to trade on. Since 1978, they’ve taken in about $27,000,000 from settlements with Apple Computer, and now they want more — because they are a failure in the music business while Apple Computer is thriving.
Apple Computer has what is arguably the most recognized brand in the world. I think it is obvious that Apple Corps no longer has claim to the name, as they haven’t used it except to sue over. It’s time to hand the name over once and for all to Cupertino. It all reminds me of a legal battle between the BBC and the Metropolitan Police.
Police Call Boxes were a common sight around the UK until the 1960s. They allowed policemen to contact their stations before personal radios were invented. The BBC used one as the iconic time machine of “Doctor Who” in 1963, as the real police boxes were being phased out.
33 years later, the BBC applied for a trademark on the police box design. The Metropolitan Police cried foul, as it was their design — but the judge ruled that the police box, since it was no longer in use by the police, was more readily identified in the public mind as Doctor Who’s ship, and that three decades of use on the BBC made it their trademark.
Maybe the police should have sued the BBC every decade?