Facta Non Verba

A lot of people wonder where the name “Apple Computer” came from, as it is a rather unusal name for a computer company.
很多人都想知道”苹果电脑”这个名称的来历，因为作为一个电脑公司的名字，它显得相当的与众不同。

Steve Jobs came up with the name in early 1976. At the time, he was often visiting and working on a small farm friends of his owned. It was a hippie commune where Steve spent a few months of the year.
这个名字最初是由史蒂夫•乔布斯[Steve Jobs，苹果电脑公司创始人之一]于1976年提出的。那时候，他常去一个朋友家的农场参观和劳动，那是一个类似于嬉皮士[注1]公社性质的地方，乔布斯在一年总要在那里呆上几个月。

When he returned from one of those stays, he told Steve Wozniak about his idea. Jobs probably was working on apple plantages. Or it was a tribute to Apple Records, the music label of the Beatles. Woz knew instantly that they were going to have copyright problems with Apple Records, but as they were unable find a name that sounded better than Apple Computer the name was chosen.
有一天，乔布斯从农场回来后，告诉了史蒂夫•沃兹尼亚克[Steve Wozniak，苹果电脑公司创始人之一]关于这个命名方式的想法[叫苹果的原因可能是因为乔布斯在农场主要是负责苹果的种植工作，也可能是为了表示对苹 果唱片公司(Apple Records，该唱片公司负责了”披头士”乐队(The Beatles)的唱片的发行工作，而”披头士”则是那个年代最受欢迎的乐队之一)的尊敬与仰慕]。虽然沃兹意识到这个名字可能会导致出现版权问题，但他 们也实在无法找到比”苹果电脑”更好的公司名称了。因此，只好先用上了再说。

Woz’s worries turned out to be justified. Apple Computer, Inc. was sued by Apple Records over copyright infringements in 1989.
后来的事实证明了沃兹的担扰是正确的，苹果唱片公司于1989年以侵害版权为由，向苹果电脑公司提起了诉讼。但最终诉讼以苹果唱片公司的失败告终。[注2]

注1：
嬉皮士：反对并且拒绝社会传统的标准与习俗的人，特指提倡极端自由主义的社会政治态度和生活方式的人。

注2：
苹果电脑公司获胜的理由如下：
Apple Computer “owns” that word applied to computers, even though it is also an ordinary word. Apple Records owns it when applied to music. Neither owns the word on its own, only in context, and owning a mark doesn’t mean complete control.
苹果电脑公司可以在电脑行业这个领域中拥有”苹果”这个名字，而苹果唱片公司同样的可以在音乐出版这个行业中拥有”苹果”这个名字，这两者是并行不悖的。