With "pod" on lockdown, Apple goes after "podcast"

[Player-X]

With "pod" on lockdown, Apple goes after "podcast"

Now that Apple's lawyers have scared the pants off of small entrepreneurs selling products like the Profit Pod and TightPod -- items that have nothing to with portable audio in any way, mind you -- it seems that the next targets are companies that have the audacity to use the word "podcast" in their names. Wired's Listening Post blog is reporting that Steve's legal eagles have sent one of those scary cease and desist letters to a company called Podcast Ready, whose premier product, myPodder, gives users an automated way to download 'casts to their portable devices. CEO Russel Holliman claims that he'd consider changing the name of the program if necessary, but seems to be justifiably reticent about rebranding his entire business, considering the fact that "podcast" may not be "owned" by Apple nor even a derivative of "iPod" in the first place. Robert Scoble -- whose own company, PodTech, may be at risk in this witch hunt -- has weighed in on the issue by suggesting that the tech community as a whole adopt other terms like "audiocast" and "videocast" (or alternately, "audcast" and "vidcast") to describe this type of content, while other folks feel that fighting Apple and generating a ton of negative press for Cupertino is the best solution. Our take? Apple should be happy that its golden goose is getting so much free publicity, and if it isn't, we know of several companies that probably wouldn't mind if zencast, zunecast, or sansacast became the preferred terminology.

Update: BBHub's own Russell Shaw delves into this issue a little further over at ZDnet, and finds that Apple is having trouble getting certain iPod-related phrases trademarked, including the word "iPodcasting."

I wonder when will they start sueing farmers for growing peas in a pod

[Samor]

what about dreamcast

[TheCloudOfSmoke]

Apple is so close to getting up there with M$. I have had more and more friends switch over to Macs recently. They should be happy that they get any type of publicity at all. Personally, I hate Apple and their immature and cheap ways of competing with M$ (Mac vs. PC commercials). They're really just pissing in the wind with this one. I thought you could only trademark a name only for a certain category. That one lady was selling laptop bags under the name TightPod and laptop bags don't fall into the category of personal media players. Good thing they can't trademark the name for real apples, we'd all be SOL.

Check out this funny ad:

http://www.worth1000.com/emailthis.asp?entry=304440

[Player-X]

Check out this funny ad:

http://www.worth1000.com/emailthis.asp?entry=304440

These are funnier:
http://tv.truenuff.com/mac/

[Exodus]

Originally Posted by TheCloudOfSmoke

I thought you could only trademark a name only for a certain category. T

The way I understand it, a similar name would be restricted only if the products were related/comparable.

[TheCloudOfSmoke]

From what I heard, you can trademark a name for a company, for example, Apple, and no one else could use that name if they ran a computer/software company. Any one else could use the name apple for their company or product as long as it isn't a computer/software related company. This is where my question of Apple's right to get the lady to change the name of her laptop bags came into play. I have to look all of that trademark stuff up again just to be sure though.

[GaveUpTomorrow]

I don't get why people even like the Ipod anyways.. I've used one a couple of times before, and it was a pain in the butt I thought. Also, they don't allow batteries to be switched and have so many restrictions with how you put music on the ipod.

I bought a creative zen a while back, and I thought it blew the Ipod away in every way possible. I guess parents and people who just don't know anything about MP3 players in general know that the Ipod is hot, so they go out and buy it like zombies. Most people don't even know that an MP3 player and an Ipod are the same thing...I find it quite funny how oblivious people are to mass marketing.

Anyways, I've never liked anything that Apple has come out with (computers, programs, ipod, etc), so I hope they lose these battles. Seems like they are becoming power hungry or something...

[JKKDARK]

but some Ipods have emulators :P

[Exodus]

Originally Posted by TheCloudOfSmoke

This is where my question of Apple's right to get the lady to change the name of her laptop bags came into play.

For that specific case, I'd have to say Apple probably wins.

[D.D.]

how exactly do these trademark things work. when my grandma visted japan a long time ago she bought a SONY chocolate bar...

[TheCloudOfSmoke]

Trademarked names are country independant. An example of this is the Sega Megadrive. Sega originally planned to name it the Megadrive in the States as well but due to trademark issues, the name was already trademarked here and they had to go with the Genesis instead.

[leo9986754]

You know what? I think Microsoft is actually way way way better than Apple. Apple is just not as good as Microsoft. I have to admit though, after iPods, Apple has been soaring with popularity everywhere. I guess it could be that some people are sick of the same old Windows, they want a newer interface. Or exclude themselve from the common Windows PC. All in all, Windows makes more than Apple and people who are making more money than others are the ones who are usually doing a greater job. Microsoft should be better than it is right now fianically, but its the fact that people just download stuff off the internet for free instead of paying for them. If that never happened, Microsoft would be ballin'. Comon Windows Xp and Office are hella friggin' expensive, but we all can just download them for free. Also employees of Microsoft has about 25%-40% discount on most of the Microsoft-based products. Hey, if you're ballin' and can do that at the same time, you know you are cool.