When Jobs named his computer company in homage to his favourite group, he soon found himself facing a trade mark infringement claim. The 1981 case was resolved out of court, with Apple Computer paying an undisclosed amount to Apple Corps. Jobs also agreed to restrict the use of his brand to computer products only.
In 1989, Apple Corps again sued Apple computer, this time over the company's use and sale of music-related software. The case settled in 1991 with a payment of $27 million and another restrictive agreement.
A statement released by Apple Corps in September confirmed that the latest lawsuit is over "the use by Apple Computer of the word 'Apple' and apple logos in conjunction with its new application for downloading pre-recorded music from the internet".
The current hearing, expected to last around three days, is only considering whether the UK court can hear the case, or whether the suit should have been brought in California.
Apple Computer was slapped with another suit, earlier in the week, when Eminem's publisher, Eight Mile Style, accused the company of copyright infringement.
According to Reuters, the rap star's company has sued Apple Computer, its MTV subsidiary Viacom, and an advertising agency over an advert shown on MTV and on the Apple web site, which included a boy singing part of Eminem's hit "Lose Yourself". The rapper, born Marshall Mathers, had not given his permission.
Reuters quotes from the lawsuit: "Eminem has never nationally endorsed any commercial products and therefore he indicated, though his manager, that even if he were interested in endorsing a product, any endorsement deal would require a significant amount of money, possibly in excess of $10 million".