The Beatles and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) ended their long standing trademark dispute, possibly paving the way for the band's music to appear on the Apple iTunes online music store.

On Monday the electronics maker and Apple Corps Ltd., which the Beatles own, jointly announced they have entered into a new agreement concerning the use of the name Apple and apple logos.

We love the Beatles, and it has been painful being at odds with them over these trademarks. It feels great to resolve this in a positive manner, and in a way that should remove the potential of further disagreements in the future, said Steve Jobs, Apple Inc.'s CEO.

Apple Corps had previously sued the US company, arguing that its use of the Apple brand for its digital music service broke a 1991 agreement between the two sides.

Apple Corps contended that the iTunes service, launched in April 2003, had taken Apple into the music business, while the US company argued that it was acting only as a distributor.

Under this new agreement, Apple Inc. will own all of the trademarks related to Apple and will license certain of those trademarks back to Apple Corps for their continued use.

Apple inc. Apple ITunes Steve jobs