Apple files 873-page court paper claiming ownership of the word "pod"

[tech3475]

The English language will soon require you to license it for educational purposes, i.e. being able to talk.

Seriously, Apple, love their ipod/iphone products, hate their totalitarian policies.

[billysastard]

The English language will soon require you to license it for educational purposes, i.e. being able to talk.

can you imaging the licence agreement?

"we reserve the right to remove or disable letters you can use at any time without prior notice"

[Xian97]

Microsoft did the same thing a few years ago, sending out letters to many companies that had software with Windows in their name. One of the utilities I use the most, Windows Commander, was renamed to Total Commander since the author wasn't going to try to fight it.

[alekiq]

well...this just plain silly...word pod in Serbian and other Balkan languages means floor

[DEDDOA]

If it had "I-" at the start I could understand it but it has no relevance whatsover with just pod int he name. I have a paint pod, I don't think to myself, "apple have started making paint now I see"

i'll be genuinely suprised if they get away with this unless they have a projector that uses the pod name, and only if the name is so similar that it can cause confusion and the apple product is "know" by that name, like their MP3 products that are know by the I-.

[billysastard]

only if the name is so similar that it can cause confusion and the apple product is "know" by that name, like their MP3 products that are know by the I-.

but i-cool made really crappy mp's players and really crappy digital cameras before the i-pod launched, they were some of the first affordable mp3 players on the market and used smart media however they were the first to use i- on multimedia products.

i know because one of my kids had one as i wasnt prepared to fork out £200-300 for a 32mb sony memory stick player for him as i knew he'd break it (as indeed he broke both the i-cool AND my sony mp3 player once i gave him it)

[noir_dreams]

Does no one remember the Law suite not so long ago between Apple and one of the Beatles (ala Paul McCartney) record companies called apple records (which was a apparently formed in like 19?60, I'm too young to know), Apple got sued cos they were moving into the music market and "people might get confused" lots of money changed hands and here we are today...

This is just Apple trying to do the same to get their own back today. Its not like someone should be able to own the word Apple either...but hell its not about being sensible its about making MONEY! and as much as a team of expensive lawyers cost I'm sure they cost more if they just sit on their asses doing nothing, so they write up a 900 page document with the idea to sue a bunch of small companies, no one really cares if they win the court costs are nothing compared they this teams wages so may as well make use of them...wow these guys must get such satisfaction in their jobs...at least they get to go home and hump their fake breasted wives who only stay with them for their money.... Anyway my rants over what's next to read.

[The_ByteMaster]

'Open the pod bay doors, HAL'
'I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that. '

That was in 1968.

[ando2k5]

Does no one remember the Law suite not so long ago between Apple and one of the Beatles (ala Paul McCartney) record companies called apple records (which was a apparently formed in like 19?60, I'm too young to know), Apple got sued cos they were moving into the music market and "people might get confused" lots of money changed hands and here we are today...

This is just Apple trying to do the same to get their own back today. Its not like someone should be able to own the word Apple either...but hell its not about being sensible its about making MONEY! and as much as a team of expensive lawyers cost I'm sure they cost more if they just sit on their asses doing nothing, so they write up a 900 page document with the idea to sue a bunch of small companies, no one really cares if they win the court costs are nothing compared they this teams wages so may as well make use of them...wow these guys must get such satisfaction in their jobs...at least they get to go home and hump their fake breasted wives who only stay with them for their money.... Anyway my rants over what's next to read.

that got settled in 2007 think it was 500 million apple paid to buy the rights

[conners]

The best bit, in the UK in the mid 90s, loads of people used to wear Pod shoes at school, way before the iPod.

[ok123]

Ye, that Apple should be the only company that is allowed to use the word "pod" in their productname doesnt seem fair indeed. I can understand it if someone calls a musicplayer something like "AiPod" or something, but not just by using the word "pod".

We actually has a manual for a "phone" that is used to open doors in blocks (where you ring the bell downstairs and listen to who it is). This phone is called Aiphone lol. Seriously, it is actually called Aiphone hehe.

[sibeer]

Their angle on this is that Videopod sounds media related so given the mass recognition of their prodcuts association with the word pod it causes customer confusion. This could potentially lead to either negative association of them with an inferior product, or lost sales as people spend their free cash on the other product thinking it is made by Apple. In reality this is BS though. If people are stupid enough to do that then they will find some other way to be ripped off. If not then there is no customer confusion. Maybe if they are also using similar style branding, casing , etc, but for the word this is a joke.

[Moses015]

So Ca George Lucas fill a lawsuit to apple cause of the word pod?

If i remeber right, somewhere the use the word, racepod, that was even, before the ipod was out

Phantom Menace -> released in 1999
iPod -> released in 2001
P.O.D. -> (Payable On Death) is an American band formed in 1992
Business

• Payable on Death, term used on certain bank accounts or Totten trusts, where payment is made to specified person upon account holder's death
• Proof of delivery, an international commerce term for a signed document proving delivery
• Print on demand (also "publishing on demand"), published works not produced until a copy is ordered
• See Moving company for Portable On Demand Storage, a portable storage unit

[edit] Computers

• Ping of death, a type of attack on a computer
• Plain Old Data structure, a term for all data types from the C programming language in C++
• Plain Old Documentation, a platform-independent documentation tool for the computer language Perl
• Point of Delivery, a module or group of network, compute, storage, and application components that work together to deliver a network service
• Power On Diagnostics, the start up sequence of computers before the Operating system is loaded. Invoked as a part of BIOS or PROM
• Python Open Document

[edit] Entertainment

• POD - Planet of Death, a pc racing game game released in 1997 by Ubisoft
• POD 2: Multiplayer Online/POD: Speedzone, a video game released in 2000 by Ubisoft
• The Path of Daggers, the eighth book of The Wheel of Time fantasy series by Robert Jordan
• Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, a rock musical starring Tenacious D
  • The Pick of Destiny, the soundtrack album
  • "POD" (song), a song on the album
• Power of Dreams, a Dublin-based pop/rock band
• Pod, a short user-created non-fiction video or documentary aired by Current TV
• EVA Pod, a fictional spacecraft used for extra-vehicular activity seen in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Pod, A fictional organic gaming console featured in the movie eXistenZ
• Pod, The growth medium for the replacements in Invasion of the Body Snatchers
• POD - the Personal Overhaul Device on Snog Marry Avoid?
• Prince of Darkness .. An appellation claimed by Ozzy Osbourne and Gus S. Calabrese .. also refers to SayaGuma (Japanese: PODbear)

[edit] Music

• Pod (Afro Celt Sound System album), a 2004 album
• Pod (album), a rock album by The Breeders
• The Pod, a 1991 album by Ween
• P.O.D. an American alternative metal band from San Diego, California
• Pod (amp modeler), POD 2.0, FloorPOD and PODxt line of guitar amp modelers by Line 6

[edit] Mathematics

• Proper Orthogonal Decomposition or Principal components analysis, a method for obtaining approximate descriptions of multidimensional systems in statistics
• Probability of Detection, a nondestructive testing term

[edit] Medicine

• Pouch of Douglas or rectouterine pouch, an extension of the peritoneal cavity between the rectum and back wall of the uterus

[edit] Technology

• Protective Oceanic Device, an electronic shark repellent
• Pod, a small vehicle, especially used in emergency situations
• Pod, a method of propulsion for ships also known as an Azimuth thruster
• iPod, a portable media player designed by Apple Inc.
• Portable device, sometimes referred to as "pod," a partial backronym constructed from digital media similar to the iPod[citation needed]

[edit] Other

• Pod, a type of fruit of a flowering plant
• Pod, a social group of cetaceans (whales, porpoises, dolphins, etc.)
• Cephalopod
• Coffee pod
• Orthotube, a door-like security device seen in the BBC television series Spooks
• Point of divergence, the point at which an alternate history diverges from the normal timeline
• Post Office Department of the United States
• Pod (Illyrian settlement)

It's just a small thing but the thing you refer to in the computer startup that in invoked prior to OS startup is actually called POST not POD. I just like to nitpick

[msanchez]

If it had "I-" at the start I could understand it but it has no relevance whatsover with just pod int he name...

Yup, I agree, I associate Apple stuff with "I", ipod, itouch, ipad, imac, idiot, imbecile, ignorant... ummm actually no they are all right.

Seriously though, these people are such freaking idiots that they don't even know their own naming scheme.