LUXEMBOURG — The Beatles’ Apple Corps can block a Dutch wheelchair manufacturer from selling “Beatle” electric mobility aids, a European Union court ruled.
The EU’s general court rejected a lawsuit by You-Q BV that sought to register a trademark for its Beatle wheelchairs. The court said the Beatles name is “still synonymous with youth and a certain counter-culture of the 1960s” and its “very positive image of freedom, youth and mobility” would likely attract people who need to use mobility aids, according to a statement from the Luxembourg-based tribunal.
The EU’s trademark office “did not err” in refusing You-Q’s application for a trademark because it was likely that the company “would take unfair advantage of the repute and the consistent selling power of Apple Corps’ trademarks,” the court said.
Apple Corps is owned by Paul McCartney; Ringo Starr; John Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono; and the estate of George Harrison. They have defended their trademarks with decades of litigation, including a long dispute against tech giant Apple, which ended in 2010, clearing the way for it to distribute Beatles songs through its iTunes music store.
You-Q, based in Helmond, Netherlands, isn’t trying to profit from the Beatles trademark and is considering an appeal to the EU’s highest court, said Gino van Roeyen, a lawyer at Banning NV, who represented the company. Bloomberg News
