russellholliman.com

Letter from Apple
Monday, September 25, 2006

Here is the letter that Podcast Ready received from Apple. If you'd like to leave an audio or video comment, please feel free.... just click the 'comment' tab on the top of the flash widget above and click the record button. Thanks.

posted by Russell @ 5:31 PM,

5 Comments:

At 9:25 AM, AndyCast Andy said...: Hi Russell,

Thank you for posting this.

I think it's a bunch of crap...I don't know of a single person in the world that refers to an ipod as a pod as they claim in their letter.

I think, as do others, that Apple is simply trying to drum up free advertising with this obviously unwinable claim.

Good luck and thanks again!
At 7:37 PM, mcd said...: A lot of us in the early days feared the use of POD in podcasting for exactly this reason.

But Apple embraced podcasting but any potentially competitive service (software or on-line) that uses POD is a likely target.

IANAL but I suspect you should use the attention you are getting now to help switch potential users over to a new brand for your software and service. The Podcast Ready service my be defensible at great expense but the
"myPodder" mark is suspect due to the sound overlap with ipodder (which was served and re-branded as "Juice", as I recall.

It's clear you don't want to loose the mental link to the iPod but that's exactly the infringement Apple seeks to reject. Alas, no free rides for the little guys...

It's time to brainstorm some new product names and re-program your (potential) userbase and let the angry mob pick away at Apple. There's no future in trying to get Apple to back off... they shown that they won't set a precedent for all the other cases that MAY emrge by letting public sentiment deter them.

I'd rebrand "mypodder" as the "audio gremlin" for example, refocusing on what the software does.

"Podcast Ready" is a dubious infringement but they'll ask for more than you need to give. Maybe you want to push back due to all the other podcast related services (Podshow, Podtech, etc). It would be smarted to invent a new brand, IMHO. Like Odeo did... "AwedCast Ready" maybe.

Good luck. Fighting with the big guys over names just sucks. As Apple learned in the 80's when Apple Corp sued them and they vowed never to go into the music business... oops.

McD
At 8:44 PM, Andre said...: Russell,
Thanks for posting this garbage.
As a consumer, I think I am more confused about this complaint than the word "pod".
I guess this means the letter "i" is next.
Why haven't they sent this letter to HP? After all, they have the "Ipaq" that sounds confusing to me. Ipaq, Ipod - what is the difference?
What about the "Pod" storage containers.
I always get confused when I see one of those.
Hey, Apple - I'm confused about a lot of things, except in the future when I purchase MP3 players or computers. Thanks for helping me make that decision.
At 1:05 PM, tim from Radio Clash said...: I don't see how they can register Pod - iPod yes, but Pod no. Too many generic uses.

IANAL as I should say, but maybe say that they can enforce their POD mark when they have actually registered it.

It's pending, so they don't own it yet, and may never do? So remind them of that fact then say 'when you have registered the mark then I discuss this'

It's probably they fear other generic uses will affect their application to register that mark. Silly really.

Only change it if they make it very worth your while - even then, I doubt they have force to make you change.
At 5:47 PM, Andre said...: Wow -
If Podcast Ready and MyPodder were a well kept secret before - they certainly aren't now.
This is on every tech website from CNET to Leo Laporte.
How many hits and downloads since the letter?
Just curious.