These folks should be suing Apple
Apple cracks down on use of the word ‘pod’ – vnunet.com — This is a classic Apple screw-up. Why would this company want to dissociate the Podcasting phenomenon from the iPod? Stupidity and hubris is my guess.
Apple has stepped up its legal crackdown on businesses using the word ‘pod’ in product and company names.
The company sent a cease-and-desist order last week to Podcast Ready, which markets an application known as myPodder that lets users download podcasts directly to a portable music player.
Lawyers for Apple contended that the term ‘pod’ has been used by the public to refer to Apple’s music player so extensively that it falls under Apple’s trademark protection, according to a copy of the legal complaint published on the Podcast Ready website.
As expected.
After all Apple is a religion. and as such above making sense…..
1
oh please, i would expect nothing less of any other company trying to protect their trademarks. and yes, other companies would try to add the word “pod’ to anthing they sell to associate with the apple ipod
# 2. Yeah, right.
I used to use ipodder, the program. It’s for podcasts. Stevie boy hated that, so ipodder is now juice.
Next thing you know, a tripod is renamed trifeet.
This is no progress. It’s shooting your own leg 🙂
So go please yourself….
First of all I am not a lawyer. IIRC the word “podcast” was coined by Adam Curry (yes the former MTV VJ who has a podcast feed to this day), who came up with the idea of podcasting, though others working with him actually implemented the protocols and the first podcast application. Somehow I doubt that Apple can copyright the word “Podcast” and surely can’t copyright “Pod” since it’s in the dictionary. iPod, maybe.
Someone at ZDNet did some digging as to why Apple might be litigating now::
http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/?p=1252
The blog makes for an interesting read, but it doesn’t counter the fact that the best free marketing is when your product’s name is synonymous with a catagory of products.
They did not send a C&D letter, which would be obvoius to anyone who took the time to actualy read the letter Apple sent.
Next they will try to copyright the lowercase “i”?
I copyright thought – now… anyone who has an orginal thought owes me money
The public should use tactics that politicians use, namely, the good ‘ol smear campaign. The word “pod” should be used in a deragatory way in popular music and ads on TV and in the media could associate “pod” with, say an homosexual act of engaging the “spacecraft” into a blackhole. Disgusting, I know but that would work in backing off Apple. I should go into politics.
Someone should crack down on Apple.
Didn’t adam and eve trademark the name apple or was it Isaac Newton.
#9….0113…..After that homosexual statement….I’m betting the homosexuals that contribute here are thinking you need to stuff your head back into your *blackhole*.
I’m still saying it’s a religion. And a stinking one as such.
Latest I’ve seen, the screen on the ipods sux big time also. Bottom of the list.
A comment in the last Cranky Geeks describes this pitiful situation. The girl from Wired News were dissing other players because they don’t have the “oooohs, and the aaaahs when you open the box”. That brings it head on in the religion category.
A Sandisk Sansa gives you: “built-in microphone with voice recorder, FM Tuner, up to 20 hours of battery life, USB connectivity, and expandability via a microSD card slot;” in addition to the stuff the ipods do. And more memory for the buck. It’s not proprietary, and you can even change the battery yourself.
Apple’s ipods looses big time in my opinion.
But then again, I’m not a religious person, so I know I’m not speaking for the majority 🙂
…any opportunity is good for legal departments to justify their existence…let’s see how pr spins this….
Roger I agree with you.
I just don’t get it!
Ipod S#cks
Tickle me Elmo gives a much better bang for the buck.
Apple does not want to separate themselves from the podcasting phenomenon. They want to benefit from it, by making it an iPod only thing. As Leo Laporte said, many people think that in order to listen to a podcast one has to have an Apple iPod.
… and religion does make sense if really study it!
Apple hasn’t tried to copyright or trademark “podcast”. Cease and desist orders to protect brand names have a classic history in global business law — mostly starting with Bayer when they didn’t protect “aspirin”. Now, aspirin doesn’t reflect their product solely — and they lost that right. Incidentally, #1 in the US in diligence is Toys ‘R Us.
The usual suspects who still can’t understand the success of the iPod — of course — never will. It doesn’t fit their own religion.
And Leo has said many times — as have all the TWITs — the truth of the practice is that over half of all podcasts are listened to/watched via computers not iPod or any other portable player. Sorry if that doesn’t fit the assorted religions represented here. The flavors that say — ignore the facts — ignore the reality — let prejudice be your guide.
Like any well-studied religion.
First of all, this has been blown out of context guys.
Apple was not suing for its name at all, in fact they even explicitly stated that to not discontinue their name.
The Letter is regarding their “mypodder” term, which is what they are wanting them to stop using.
Move along guys.
Well Victor more to the story than that
Apple and Cingular may be in a deal over Apple iPhone for 2007
The agreement would make Cingular the exclusive carrier of Apple’s forthcoming phone supposed to be called Apple iPhone.
The deal between Apple and Cingular is expected to be for around a period of six months after which the phone could be made available on other competing networks.
Cingular incidentally also had an exclusive deal on the Moto Rokr mobile phone from Motorola, which was developed in collaboration with Apple Computer.
The Apple iPhone will feature a candy-bar design with a 2.2-inch display and 3-megapixel camera. It would of course have the iTunes and iSync features to complement the iPod range of digital music players.
What a genius I am!
I thought we are talking about Apple cracking down on the use of the word “pod”. I mentioned Leo because he said that he encountered people that told him: “I would love to listen to your show, but I do not have an iPod” which suggests that the name podcast sends people thinking iPod. If they let things get out of hand, the word pod gets overused and all digital music players could become some kind of pods and iPod starts losing market, like the Scotch tape.
The remark to religion was made in response of an earlier post that said that “like any religion it does not make sense, or something of this sort.
Seems to me I recall that HAL and the escape “pod” of 2001: A Space Odyssey was long before the apple was a gleam in the garage. . .
Just for reference, my company had a line of Fire and Police radio dispatch systems named “Pod” starting in 1987. The term “Pod” was used in the name of the product and for the name of each dispatcher station. This product line was advertised in trade magazines and was sold to city and state government agencies for more than 10 years through four generations of user interface (Pod I, Pod II, Pod III and Pod IV). I even imagine we probably were not the first to use the term “Pod” in a product line.
Steve.
No such thing as bad publicity! Like whales in a pod…..
The “podcasting community” should drop the “pod” term like a hot potato.
Using the word “pod” to define a whole new media has been a free advertising bonanza for Apple. Let ’em have it.
TWO PEAS IN A POD!
#6, Andy,
They did not send a C&D letter, which would be obvoius to anyone who took the time to actualy read the letter Apple sent.
Comment by Andy — 9/26/2006 @ 6:05 pm
#17, Brett,
First of all, this has been blown out of context guys.
Apple was not suing for its name at all, in fact they even explicitly stated that to not discontinue their name.
The Letter is regarding their “mypodder” term, which is what they are wanting them to stop using.
Move along guys.
Comment by Brett — 9/26/2006 @ 7:30 pm
Do you have a copy of the letter? Because the rest of us only have a news report about the incident. And it appears in the news report that Apple did indeed send a Cease and Desist letter to Podcast Ready telling them to stop using the term “mypodder”. Read the article before commenting about something you don’t know Jack Skit about.
If MicroSoft couldn’t win its Window’s law suit, then I doubt Apple has much chance with an even more varied word like pod.
And this is the reason Apple will never ever conquer the PC.
I (can I use that, or will Apple sue me?) think the pod people have gone loony tunes. Kill the lawyer now.
Have an intolerant muslim cleric send the request to stop using the term pod and much of western culture may bow to prevent offending him.
Any more silly than Microsoft cracking down on the use of Windows?