BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhuanet) -- Apple Corps, the multimedia company founded by The Beatles, and Apple Computer Co., the creators of the iPod, are due to clash in a British court over Apple's iTunes music store.

    Both parties are set for a hearing on Wednesday before Justice Edward Mann, who will decide whether Apple Computer's iTunes online music service violates a 1991 agreement between the two companies that Apple Corps. says blocked the computer maker from selling music.

    Apple Corps. is demanding damages totalling several million pounds after alleging that the computer firm's iTunes Music Store breaches a previous settlement between the two companies that restricted Apple Computer's activities in music.

    The Beatles first used a logo of a Granny Smith in 1968 when they founded the Apple Corps. to distribute their records and those of other artists they signed to the Apple record label. The records had a ripe apple on one side and a neatly sliced half on the reverse.

    Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple Computer, founded his company in 1976 with a logo of a rainbow-coloured apple with a bite taken out of it. Apple Corps. sued him five years later, accepting an 80,000 U.S. dollars settlement and a promise that the computer company would stay out of the music business.

    The companies clashed again in 1989 after Apple Computer introduced a music-making program. 

    Apple Corps. is claiming that the introduction of iTunes broke a 26- million-U.S.dollar settlement under which Apple Computer agreed to steer clear of the music business, for which the Beatles¡¯company retains the famous trademark.

    Any damages for this latest clash could amount to tens of millions of pounds because it concerns Apple Computer's hugely successful iTunes Music Store and iPod digital music players. Enditem

(Agencies)