Apple loses trademark of “Apple Music”

Apple had wanted to extend the influence of the “Apple Music” brand to concerts, but here’s Charles Bertini organizing the “Apple Jazz” festival since 1984. He appealed the decision, a decision now upheld by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Apple comes ipso facto To lose the “Apple Music” trademark due to a technical error.

To understand the ins and outs of this case, we must go back, truly backwards. The Beatles created Apple in January 1968 and registered the corresponding trademark in August of the same year. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created their company without infringing on the intellectual property of the four hipsters. Trademarks can be registered in 45 classes, 35 classes for goods and ten for services, such as class 38 for communications.

As long as Apple (Inc of Cupertino) did not step on the toes of Apple (Corps of London), the two could coexist without the risk of confusion. Things obviously changed with the launch of iTunes and the marketing of the iPod. After years of wrangling, Apple (Inc) finally bought the Apple trademark in 2011, and Apple (Corps) obtained a license for its logo and the Class 9 including in particular sound recording devices and the digital recording media.

After expanding its brand in most of the available categories, Apple wanted to add the “Apple Music” tag to it in the wake of opening the service in 2015. Charlie Bertini is certainly the owner of the “Apple Jazz” brand, but only in New York State and only since 1985, while That the Cupertino company bears a federal trademark and can count on the primacy of the Beatles’ patent. The musician’s opposition application before the Trademarks Commission was denied.

Wrong, according to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, that points out the importance of classes. Since the Beatles trademark only covers music recordings, Apple cannot claim that it includes concerts, “No one can reasonably conclude that concert recordings are substantially identical to concerts”. The judges firmly refused “Mass” Trademark primacy claims made by Apple Corps.

The Cupertino company’s lawyers had hoped to return to court after removing the concerts from their file, a more honorable move since the last edition of the AppleJazz Festival was held in … 2014. Sadly, the judges denied their request. In ten short lines. IPWatchdog estimated This decision invalidates the entire procedure for filing the “Apple Music” trademark in the United States. It’s (most likely) just a delay.