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
George (given name) Saint George (Georgios) was born in Lydda, Syria Palaestina in c. 280 as the son of a Greek Christian nobleman from Cappadocia. After his martyrdom in 303, the name Georgios became used more widely among Christians, as an adopted baptismal or monastic name, throughout the Eastern Empire. By the 7th century, at least 25 bishops in Anatolia and the Aegean had taken the saint's name. The veneration of Saint George is established for the 5th century. In the Western Church, he was canonized by Pope Gelasius I in 496, but the given name "Georgius" was only rarely used. Georgius (Giorgo)