Related: Apple Corps., Apple Computer Co. to vie in court over online music store

The record company is represented by a green Granny Smith apple (L), and the computer logo is a cartoonish apple with a bite missing (R). (File Photo)

    BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhuanet) -- Two Apple giants sat Wednesday in the British High Court and battled over the commercial rights to the image of the multi-million-pound worth apple.

    Apple Corps., founded by the Beatles in 1968, claims that Apple Computer has breached an original agreement that it should use the apple logo only on computers, in data processing and telecommunications. 

    It wants Apple Computer to drop the trademark apple from its iTunes Music Store, and is also asking for damages, though a monetary figure has not yet been named.

    There has been much litigation between the two Apples. The Beatles sued Apple Computer over the name in 1981, four years after Steve Jobs co-founded Apple Computer. He is said to have chosen the name in part as a tribute to the Beatles.

   That case ended after the tech company paid the Beatles' company money and agreed to "use the name only for computer products."

    A decade later, in 1991, the Beatles sued again, alleging that Apple Computer was violating the initial agreement by using its Apple logo on music-synthesizing products. The case was settled out of court with Apple Computer paying the Beatles' company and signing the agreement around which the current lawsuit revolves.

    However, Apple Computer this time claims that the website complies with its duties in the contract. It said that the 1991 agreement with Apple Corps gave each company rights to use the trademark, that their interpretations of the contract now differ, and that the court must now straighten it out.

    Lawyers for Apple Computer will begin their opening arguments Thursday. The trial is expected to last at least five days. Enditem

   (Agencies)