Intellectual Property Laws: Apple Corps And Apple Inc.

“Intellectual property law protects the results of human endeavors” (Bouchoux, 2013) There are four mechanism by which this is accomplished; trademarks, patents, copyrights, and trade secrets. Trademarks and copyrights must be registered, patents must be granted. Trademarks can be registered at the United States Patent and Trademark Office USPTO this is also where patent applications are filed and granted. Copyrights must be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office (Bouchoux, 2013). All three forms involve different rules on public notification and enforcement and only trademarks can be renewed. Trade secrets require no formal filing; however, companies often require non- disclosure agreements and/or confidentiality agreements from

Monosoff stated that “the power of the trademark was often overlooked and how wonderful a tool it was that could provide an incredible value when it came to protecting a product or brand name.” (2017). As was with the case between Apple Corps and Apple Inc. the Beatles were the first to trademark the word Apple with their company Apple Corps, eight years later Steve Job introduce Apple Inc. in the first round of battle the Beatles sued and won, at which time Steve Job agreed to stay out of the music business, that was until the development of iTunes, they went back to court again, in 2007 this time they settled, Apple Inc bought the trademark and licensed it back to the Beatles.(Thompson, 2015). Both companies would benefit from this transaction, and at a fraction of the cost of a patent or hassle of a copyright to register, the trademarks registration are just as valuable as a patents or copyright and are often easier and less cumbersome to enforce. Apple Inc. still maintain ownership of the Apple trademark to this day and continues to increase its inventory of registered products. Unlike patents and copyrights, Trademarks do not expire after a set term of years, because trademark rights come from actual use, a trademark can last forever - if it’s being used in commerce to indicate the source of good and

Other prohibited acts include unauthorized performing or making of derivative works of copyrighted materials. As with each of the other mechanisms of Intellectual property, copyright infringement has its own penalties and remediation’s available for the copyright owner. Singer and Song writers Robin Thicke and Pharrell, wrote and sang the song Blurred lines and it became an instant hit, it wasn’t long after the song began playing on radio stations across the nations that the children of the deceased seventies superstar Marvin Gaye filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the pair. The jury awarded the family seven point four million dollars. “To promote creativity, copyright law depends on a careful balance between rights that stimulate creativity, and freedoms that preserve access to the raw materials that artists need to create in the first place. The “scenes a faire” doctrine is an example of such freedom – anyone can use the indispensable building blocks of a genre” (Jenkins, 2015). When dealing with copyright this is a question we must always