Panayiotou v Sony Music Entertainment (UK) Ltd the copyright to Sony for many years, leaving him no control over how the music would be marketed nor placing a reciprocal requirement that the label invest in promotion. Had the case succeeded, it might have curtailed the practice of signing artists to multi-album contracts. The court wholly rejected the claims. Georgios Panayiotou, known professionally as George Michael, signed with Innervision Records in 1982 at the age of eighteen as part of the then relatively unknown pop duo Wham!. Innervision were distributed by CBS Records. In 1984 this contract was nullified as part of a legal compromise wherein Wham! were
Georgios as George of Cyprus, and latinized as "Georgius Cyprius"; similarly George Hamartolos (d. 867), George Maniakes (d. 1043), George Palaiologos (d. 1118). In the case of modern Greek individuals, the spelling "Georgios" may be retained, e.g. Georgios Christakis-Zografos (1863–1920), Georgios Stanotas (1888–1965), Georgios Grivas (1897–1974), Georgios Alogoskoufis (b. 1955), Georgios Alexopoulos (b. 1977), etc. The modern Greek short form Γιώργος "Giorgos" is sometimes rendered "Yiorgos" or "Yorgos", as in Yiorgos Theotokas (1906–1966). Georgios Georgios (Γεώργιος ) is a Greek name derived from the word ("georgos", "farmer" lit. "earth-worker"). The word is a compound of ("ge", "earth", "soil") and ("ergon", "task",