In 1967, the Velvet Underground and Nico released an album cover by Andy Warhol. In 2012, the band sued the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, which runs most of the late artist’s business, because the latter had licensed the banana album cover for iPad accessories without asking the band, who worried people would take it as an endorsement. Now we’ve had a court date, and there’s been success and failure.

The claim of copyright infringement has been thrown out, possibly because of questions over the source material, but the claim of trademark infringement has been allowed to go ahead, and will require another judgement. As the band explained, the banana cover "has become so identified with The Velvet Underground... that members of the public, particularly those who listen to rock music, immediately recognize the banana design as the symbol of The Velvet Underground." The Foundation are arguing the band haven’t been active enough to keep it.