Apple and podcast: Update and 'the truth'
I, along with some bigger names on the Net, have been rapped for reports that Apple is trying to trademark the term ‘podcast’.
Rob from Podcast411.com picked me up in the comments of that article:
Actually your article is not correct at all. Apple is not going after the name Podcast. This is something that has been misreported all over the net. Listen to my podcast above where I shed the truth on this whole subject.
Well, if you do listen to Rob’s podcast, you’ll find out that the original cease and desist letter that was sent from Apple to Podcast Ready for infringement of Apple’s ‘iPod’ trademark by their ‘myPodder’ service – because ‘mypodder phonetically sounds like ipodder’ (that’s Rob word for word so I don’t get into more trouble for misquoting or misrepresenting the facts)
There’s a lot more on the podcast that’s interesting (if a little longwinded, but then that’s podcasts, eh?) but the basic point seems to be that a lot of us new media ‘journos’ didn’t do our research properly and jumped on the back of Apple.
Well, OK, hands up to that one – but I still stand by my original rant that Apple continues to look stupid by it. Would Apple win against ‘mypodder’? Probably – that’s a whole new rant about trademarks and soundalikes – to me myPodder is different to iPod, but there you go. And going after other products with the word ‘pod’ in is still ridiculous. Period.
So, I get your point Rob, but I still stand by my original objection.
