Beatles suing internet marketers over unauthorized merchandise

Can one find a great "Yellow Submarine" T-shirt while internet shopping? A Ringo Starr throw pillow? But of course!

It’s why the Beatles’ companies Apple Corps Ltd. and Subafilms Ltd. are suing 48 internet dealers and aliases for promoting, distributing and selling items that bear counterfeit logos or imitations of their respective trademarks, according to Billboard magazine.

The companies, run by the two living band members, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, and the estates of John Lennon and George Harrison, filed a lawsuit Feb. 1 against the distributors, alleging trademark counterfeiting and infringement, according to the magazine.

The suit also claims “false designation of origins” to confuse potential buyers, common law unfair competition and common law trademark infringement, Billboard reported.

According to the suit, the companies have sold items that include bed linens and pillowcases, apparel for men, women and toddlers, such as tank tops, T-shirts, jackets, hats, shoes, onesies, cases for mobile telephones, pendants, backpacks and doormats, and that the items are of “a quality substantially and materially different than that of plaintiffs’ respective, genuine goods,” the magazine reported.