Don’t call it ‘Pod’

Heard of the latest paranoia? No? Ok, I’ll tell you, its from none other than the great Apple.

Apparently Apple thinks that if they trademark a word, they have an implied trademark on any words or phrases that can be derived from that word. Here in this case their trademark is ‘iPod’ and they have a serious delusion that they also own the rights to ‘pod’ so that no one else on earth can use ‘pod’ in any of their products or services or company names etc. irrespective of whether the supposed offender has anything to do with digital products or not. Apple has issued cease-and-desist orders against anyone using the words “Podcast Ready” and “myPodder” in their products or services claiming that the use of these words infringes its trademark!!

If thats not enough, Apple also doesn’t want anyone using the word “pod” even by those who don’t have anything to do with digital audio or MP3 players etc. In a case of extreme paranoia, Apple has paid a woman an undisclosed amount of money to make her rebrand her laptop bags which she was selling under the brandname of “TightPod” after sending a letter reminding her of the trademark violation that she’s causing with her brand!! And no, thats not enough!! In another case of idiocy & stupidness, Apple sent a cease-and-desist letter to a manufacturer named Mach 5 which has made a small device which keeps track of coins put in & tickets issued by an arcade machine and sends this data wirelessly to a PDA or a laptop, the only fault is that the manufacturer branded this cool nifty device as Profit Pod. Paul Miller of Engadget had a bit of jest up his sleeve on this when he wrote:

Apple seems to think the word “Pod”, plus the similar functionality of transmitting data to a computer, use with video games, and the fact that, in their words, “the PROFIT POD product is a small, flat, round corned rectangular device with a display screen”, make the Profit Pod a threat to that nifty brand name of theirs. We wouldn’t call it an iPod killer per se, but maybe these Mach 5 folks are on to something.

Don’t be surprised if Apple goes after your furniture maker because they sell “pods” or if Apple sends a cease-and-desist letter to George Lucas for his use of “pod racing” in the Star Wars!!

Hat tip: Macworld