The head of Apple Computer has appealed to the Beatles to sell their hits through his iTunes online store after winning a £100 million trademark dispute.

Mr Justice Mann accepted the computer company’s argument that “even a moron in a hurry” could tell the difference between its iTunes Music Store and the Beatles’ Apple Corps company. Apple Corps, owned by Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and the families of George Harrison and John Lennon, wanted multimillion-pound damages from the US company over the use of the logo in connection with its iTunes Music Store.

It was the latest round in a battle over logos between the two companies that dates back to the early 1980s. A $26 million (£14 million) trademark agreement in 1991 gave Apple Corps the exclusive rights to use “apple” logos for the record business.

The Beatles claimed that Apple Computer had breached the agreement by expanding into music through the introduction of iTunes, which displayed the apple logo on screen. Apple Corps wanted the High Court to award damages and stop the American company using the logo in its music operations. But the judge ruled that the computer company used the apple logo in association with its store, not the music, and so was not in breach of the agreement.

The Beatles’ representatives pledged to appeal against the verdict, which could cost Apple Corps £3 million. Mr Justice Mann rejected a demand by the computer company for £1.5 million in interim costs. Neil Aspinall, manager of Apple Corps, said: “With great respect to the trial judge, we consider he has reached the wrong conclusion. We felt that during the course of the trial we clearly demonstrated just how extensively Apple Computer had broken the agreement.”

However, Mr Aspinall, the Beatles’ former road manager, announced that his company was digitally remastering the entire Beatles catalogue, which would finally pave the way for selling the songs online.

Steve Jobs, chairman of Apple Computer, offered the Beatles an olive branch. He said: “We have always loved the Beatles, and hopefully we can now work together to get them on the iTunes Music Store.” Mr Jobs said that he was “glad to put this disagreement behind us”.

At one point during the hearing the court reverberated to the sounds of the 1978 hit Le Freak, by Chic, as Apple Corps demonstrated to the judge, an iPod owner, how many times the logo flashed on screen during an iTunes download. iTunes was more than simply a software delivery system, the Beatles’ lawyers argued. Its purpose was to sell music, marketed via exclusive tracks from artists such as Coldplay.

Apple Computer argued that although it did use the logo, the store and downloaded music made clear that the company did not own any of the rights to the music.

The judge said that iTunes was “a form of electronic shop” that had proved to be enormously successful. It had sold one billion downloads since the launch of the iPod in 2001.

But he concluded that “the use of the Apple logo in the iTunes display does not suggest a relevant connection with the creative work”. The use of the logo on iTunes, Apple advertisements and the iPod was “fair and reasonable” and not a breach of the previous agreement, he ruled.

APPLE V APPLE

• Founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, now its chief executive, who built his first computer in his parents’ garage
  
  
• Created the Apple Macintosh in 1984
  
  
• Unsuccessfully sued Microsoft, alleging that Windows was a copy of the Mac’s operating system
  
  
• Sold the first iPod in 2001; established iTunes Music Store in 2003
  
  
• $14bn revenue last year
  
  
  
  APPLE CORPS
• Founded by the Beatles in 1968 to release records and merchandise
  
  
• Divisions included Apple Records, Apple Electronics and Apple Films
  
  
• Apple Retail, a shop in Baker Street, London, closed within a year
  
  
• Has a long history of litigation, most notably against Apple Computer in 1981, 1989 and 2002

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