Apple’s ‘Vingle’ trademark application sparks speculation

“What is Steve Jobs going to pull out of the sleeve of that black turtleneck next? Domination of the Web, if you believe the trademarks Apple Computer Inc. filed at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office on Oct. 7,” Frank Ahrens reports for The Washington Post. “In three filings, Apple — which made headlines last week by rolling out the next generation of iPod, one that can play video (what a beauty business plan: keep selling the same thing, over and over) — asked for a trademark on something it calls ‘Vingle.'”

Ahrens reports, “According to the filings, Vingle is, well, let’s just give you the company’s language, because it’s pretty sprawling in its scope. Vingle will or could comprise: ‘Telecommunication services, namely, electronic transmission of streamed and downloadable audio and video files via computer and other communications networks; providing on-line chat rooms, bulletin boards and community forums for the transmission of messages among computer users concerning entertainment, music, concerts, videos, radio, television, film, news, sports, games and cultural events; web casting services; delivery of messages by electronic transmission; provision of connectivity services and access to electronic communications networks, for transmission or reception of audio, video or multimedia content…’ and so on, including search engines and a global network.”

Ahrens reports, “But, wait: There’s more! Two other filings say Vingle could include not only hardware (new computers and peripherals) but also a chain of retail stores.”

Full article here.

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81 Comments

  1. It does kinda make me wonder why Microsoft suddenly decided to partner with Yahoo a few days ago with their various messaging services (IM immediately and then video chat by the middle of next year). Also makes me wonder why the very next day, Microsoft then decided to settle with Real Networks to to start talks of partnering to deliver real-time content.

    I can only assume they know something about Apple’s future products that we don’t.

  2. I can only assume they know something about Apple’s future products that we don’t.”

    I doubt they know anything we don’t – in other words: nothing. Why would Apple give their competition any help competing with them.

    If anything, MS and the others might are acting on what they are speculating on what Apple may be coming out with – and I bet it’s scaring the s**t out of them.

  3. at first by these filings it seemed that vingle is going to be everything under the sun. but after further thought i came to the conclusion that apple just wants to make sure that nobody else use the word “vingle” for anything else anywhere. Such action would avoid the problem that Apple has had with Apple Corp, the music label.

  4. I surprised that

    1) “vingle” is not yet trademarked and thus available, and
    2) that Apple had to go to great lengths to describe what it is (though as described it could be anything).

    In the 80’s I had heard that there are companies who’s business it was to coin new words and trademark them, then sell those names to companies to use on actual new products. The name “Fiero”, used by Pontiac on a two seat sporty car, as one such word. Supposedly pharmaceutical companies were also big clients, buying names for new drugs.

    Does anyone know anything about this?

  5. macnut222, I’m not saying your right or wrong but Apple has to have developers on board for anything to take hold. Remember when Apple wowwed us with OS X and the Aqua user interface. As I recall, one of the only third party applications they demoed that day was Microsoft’s Internet Explorer for the Mac with it’s Aqua GUI that everyone went gaga for. Remember when they released the G2 iPod with all the new capabilities out of the blue – they had like 5 different third-party hardware manufacturers that all had add-ons available that day that would work with the newly enhanced iPods. Remember when Apple dropped the bomb shell that they were switching to Intel. Wolfram Research was right there with a working copy of Mathmatica. They DO work (and share) with developers before actually releasing some products.

    Ohhh, and don’t you think that Vingle is a hip way of saying, “give me a jingle” but instead of using a phone you would use their new “video” (video + jingle = vingle) conferencing features with this new patented technology? It just seems like this is the only thing it could be to me. What do you think?

  6. Registrant:
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    Registered through: GoDaddy.com (http://www.godaddy.com)
    Domain Name: VINGLE.COM
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    Expires on: 30-Apr-06
    Last Updated on: 22-Jun-05

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    15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
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    Domains by Proxy, Inc.
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    Registry Status: REGISTRAR-LOCK

  7. I welcome the new technology, whatever it is. One glaring thing missing from the Mac world is a Mac-saavy, community-based destination. (chat, message boards, games, etc.). If you go to MSN, you can’t access chat rooms; you go to AOL, you get some but not all; you go to Comcast, things don’t work and text is askew; you go to Yahoo, you get a partial experience. You get my drift. Whatever it turns out to be, “VINGLE” is a horrible choice for a trademark. It’s awkward, forgetful and very unMacintosh. I hope I’ll be pleasantly surprised with something from left field, but in a world where YAHOO and GOOGLE are the names-of-choice, I’m left wondering what the hell is everyone thinking. I still think EXCITE is one of the best labels anyone has ever come up with, but it has faded into obscurity. Just goes to show that the name isn’t everything, but a kewl name always is a good first step. VINGLE? I don’t think so.

  8. VINGLE suggests to me the MINGLING of Video and other Information. It’s an easy word to remember and build a brand association around.
    Many things are assembled on a speculative basis…conditions change…and plans evolve. The video iPod and Front Row software are actually VERY conservative moves. If it doesn’t work (but of course it very likely will work more than well enough)…they’ve lost very little. I still have a first gen iPod…battery works great..got it in 2001. I use it for Audio Books. Still a great product. By moving on to another product..did Apple lose anything? The next generation of ipod will likely support higher resolution video and ITMS will have far more content. People who say, “why not just record the show on your VCR or TIVO or DVR?” are misunderstanding the size of the market and the nature of change in consumer electronics. People who don’t absolutely live to set their recorders or who missed the first season of a show or whatever…will buy this stuff like crazy. As someone else pointed out..think Sopranos on ITMS and you have some idea.

    By the way…I opened one of the clips of LOST from the ITMS and clicked on it..opened it in Quicktime…enlarged it on my 24 inch monitor and it looks amazingly good…even at 320 x 240…quite impressive…

  9. Jim >

    Your post reminds me of that fabulous line from Die Hard: WIth A Vengeance…

    Scene: McClane driving – for want of a better word – a perturbed Zeus through Central Park.

    John McClane (Bruce Willis): “Relax, I know what I’m doing”

    Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson): “Not even God knows what you’re doing, McClane”.

    Which then leads you the other fabulous joke…

    What’s the difference between Steve Jobs and God?

    God knows he isn’t Steve Jobs.

  10.  
    Come on, guys and gals, let’s think about this matter a little more.

    Think first, if you will, about Paul Joseph Goebbles, the German Nazi propaganda minister (1933-1945) who exploited the German media to launch propaganda against the Jews and other groups. He killed his family and himself after Germany’s defeat.

    Then think about Osama bin Laden, the Arab terrorist who established al-Qaeda (born in 1957). A lot of people want to kill him in most any manner possible.

    Thinking this way might be portending of something we’d rather not think about right now but maybe we can since Steve Jobs has publicly admitted that we’re all gonna die one day, that we might all try to enjoy the time we have left.

    Think about all those people in history who, like the two mentioned above, only wished they might develop a delivery system such as that Steve Jobs has ongoing legitimately, constructively, and with honorable intentions. Even though his intentions may be meritorious compared to those of the earlier mentioned two, make no mistake about it, Steve is playing with the world’s testicles here, and he’s doing so very methodically. The word vingle has to do with his method, or so I imagine.

    Contrary to the methods used by the two men mentioned earlier above, Steve Jobs doesn’t force his system on anyone. It is something people willingly buy into, use, and benefit from. In such a process there is the potential to influence the behavior of all those buyers. What creates the influence is the nature and substance of the system’s throughput. That’s what a vingle is all about, or so I imagine; it’s about the measure of throughput of Steve job’s delivery system.

    Frank Ahrens, imagining for The Washington Post, has expressed his estimate of the scale of Jobs’ intentions, that of seeking to dominate the Web. I believe Frank’s estimate of scale may be about right in the sense that the idea of a throughput for Job’s delivery system requires ideas on that scale. I doubt that Steve Jobs believes he’ll ever dominate the web but that doesn’t mean that he shouldn’t think on that scale; he and his people must think so if Apple Computer is to be creative on that scale. Make no mistake, that is the scale on which Apple Computer plays with its rapidly emerging delivery system which just happens to enable cultural revolution. Maybe the word more correctly used here could be evolution. Evolution happens, thus Jobs’ societal testicular play opportunities.

    The iPod is about music, or so Steve says. Well, it’s to become something about more than music if the word vingle means what I imagine it might.

    In an attempt to put these matters on a practical footing, I’ll suggest that Steve Jobs has turned Apple Computer into another Lockheed with his own skunk works. The vingle word stems from the Apple skunks, I suspect. Apple has developed an alternative to the strategic ballistic missile system, I do believe. His alternative creates shock and awe much as cruise missiles do but instead of being harmful, Steve’s missiles are deemed acceptable, even highly-sought. His missiles are vingles, I suspect, the throughputs of the delivery system his firm has created composed of convenient, integrated software and hardware. The Apple system works, simply put. If Goebbles is turning over in his grave with thoughts of Steve’s accomplishments in this arena, it’s because Goebbles is likely to be having orgasms.

    Well, there can be a number of throughputs for Steve’s delivery system. To even talk about them is to give them a name first. The idea of a video single sure fits well to the notion that a video podcast should be designed to deliver an appropriate sense of shock and awe, one that equates to value as an output.

    To accuse Apple of an intent to dominate the web is delve into nonsense, I believe. Give Apple the respect they deserve here. They must be able to describe what they are doing without being curtailed needlessly by the lack of legal trademark support, a matter technologists everywhere must accommodate. Rather, I suspect, we should worry far more about all those Goebbles types out there who may choose to take advantage of what Apple Computer has created. (This can become a bothersome problem, to be honest. Natural development is often fraught with malicious interlopers.)

    I further suspect that not many people realize how lucky we are to have a person like Steve Jobs in charge of the development of this alternative to a strategic ballistic missile system. He tries not to get all hung up on dogma, I’m told.

    Well, you can relax and enjoy your coffee this morning because Steve’s standing the watch.
     

  11. Vingle is a norwegian word (verb) and means to be unsteady and/or switch directions, like when you had too much to drink you “vingler” as you walk…

    But hey, vingle sounds like a combination of mingle and video in my ears, and actually sounds a lot better than “chat” in todays IM services…

    Let´s vingle!!!!

    Hmmm…. I get pictures of Austin Powers in my head..!.?

  12. To be seen on TV in a few months. Preferably narrated by Jeff Goldblum

    advertisement #1

    “Most chat rooms give you this. (shows a boring text based chat-room), a boring place to just, well, mingle.

    “But now the makers of the iPod give you this: (shows Vingle in action with gorgeous aqua interface, 20 h.264 live video feeds) With fluid video incorporate you can now communicate over the internet like never before.

    “Go ahead. Go vingle.”

    advertisement #2

    “Why do they call chat-rooms rooms? (show a boring text based chat-room.) Don’t know? Neither do we. What if you actually could feel like you were all in the same room?

    (shows Vingle in action with gorgeous aqua interface, 20 h.264 live video feeds)

    “How the makers of the iPod mingle. Go ahead. Go Vingle”

  13. why does the link from the MDN widget take you to a different page. I posted on this page, but if I use the website link, I don’t see my post… but if i use the widget link, I do see my post…

    explanation?

  14. “Vingle” sounds stupid.

    Besides, if Apple REALLY had something big & secret going, why did they subject it to publicly-available trademark filings? It’s the same reason tire companies rarely file for patents: they don’t want to tip competitors off to their trade secrets. Remember that Apple didn’t trademark Aqua beforehand.

    IMO “Vingle” is best used as a code-name, like how “Gibbly” or whatever was used for QuickTime. Apple can do better than this.

  15. “Most chat rooms give you this. (shows a boring text based chat-room), a boring place to just, well, mingle.

    —

    Okay, let’s be honest here.. most people in ‘chat rooms’ are not going to look good through an iSight camera.

    I think you guys are way off.. I love MDN and all, but the chat room Idea? Eh.. Apple’s just too ‘human’ of a company to promote something so antisocial.

    I can’t imagine what Vingle is.. it sure sounds awkward, in my humble opinion.. the only way it can work is as a name for something NOT aimed at mass audience.

    Kinda like Bonjour, etc. Most people don’t really need to know what it is, and use the word.. whereas Front Row will be used by many people.

  16. Apple will introduce a “Download and Burn” dvd movie service in 2006 with Fairplay H.264 video. Better than dvd quality for less! Plays only on an authorized mac.

    How do I know this? All new iMacs come with DVD Superdrives without the option for a Combo Drive… Speculate THAT!!!

  17. For all those saying Vingle sounds stupid…you almost certainly also thought (in 2001) that the word iPod was a totally moronic name for a product.

    Telephone, Television or Camcorders aren’t great names either. Walkman in its day was. Windows in its day WAS. Macintosh was great in its day and MAC is perfect for the next 20 years.

    Vingle sounds to me like it could be the iChat, iSight video conferencing between friends on Macs or iPhones or iPodphones even…

    “I’ll just Vingle Keira and Darcy and see if they’ll come to dinner”

    Go Apple.

  18. It’s a video phone. As in Video and Jingle. It would replace the phones as we know it. A new device that used ichat av with a phone like thing. The system will replace AT&T and all the other phone companies.

    Can you go out this weekend? Sure, Vingle me later.

  19. Ventricularly Independent Nihilistic Gonad-Luring Electronics
    Vertically Integrated Notional Gadget for Light Entertainment
    Viscerally Intentional Narcissistic Gentleman’s Lurid Erotica
    Vascularly Intrepid Nonsensical Glowing Light Element
    Vortex Instigating Nimble Gravity Lightening Engine
    Vaporous Ideas Normally Generate Losing Exercises
    Viscous Internal kNob for Greasing Love Entrances
    Volubly Inspirational Nerdy Guy’s Love Emissions
    Vibrating Internal Nexus for Girl-Like Excesses
    Vehicle for Injecting Nice Glue-Like Essence

    Come to think of it, vingle is quite resistant to parody acronym creating exercises.

  20. I think Apple just filed this to mess with Gates. ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />

    I dunno though. I don’t think Apple owns the Vingle.com domain (which was originally registered a couple years ago). Apple’s nameservers aren’t being used for it. And GoDaddy is a sleazy registrar; not the kind Apple is inclined to (or does) use.

    … unless of course they wanted to use subterfuge to fuel wild speculation (and drive Gates crazy).

    Did i say i think Apple is just messing with Gates?

    MW: Opened, as in “Vingle has opened a whole new can of worms.”

  21. I think the last option (a placeholder) is somewhat unlikely. This is a trademark application, not patent where companies file sometimes to be defensive or to prevent others from developing the same idea. The only thing you get is a prevention for other companies to use “Vingle” as a brand in the same target market. Unlike iPhone and such, Vingle does not fit Apple’s naming pattern for consumer product and does not sound very special at all. That leads me to believe Apple already has already developed services and business plan and is waiting for the perfect moment to unveil it.

  22. The “i” whatever name is a fad, a trend….fad and trend names eventually get old. Apple does have to get itself out of this “i” fashion name trap.
    We will see what Vingle is or isn´t.
    Like everything else that has been predicted in recent times, it is wrong.

  23. Apples “i”names will someday become a cliche, out of touch, out of fashion. Apple does need to start moving in other name directions.

    I just hope vingle is not pronounced as a new i-word, as in:
    V – iNgle.

  24. It sounds vaguely Yiddish.

    “Oy, what’s with the vingle already….meshuganah….”

    Has Apple ever made up words for their products before? Usually they use a simple single word (Bonjour, Rendezvous, Quicktime) or just sticking an i onto the front of another word.

  25. V-virtual
    I-infastruture of
    N-networking
    G-groups with
    L-loose
    E-expansion

    Something chat-oriented with loose expansion- meaning it has no boundaries- like the internet……

    The ‘of’ and ‘with’ would make the acronym sound bad and thats why Apple didnt include them

    Thats the best I could come up with

  26. I’VE GOT IT!!!

    A ‘Vingle’ is an Apple store in a booth…

    Think cash machine/ATM size box in a wall:
    1) search for your single or music video or ringtone
    2) swipe your credit card
    3) plug in your shuffle, nano, vPod, iPhone, etc
    4) watch & listen without even having a computer, or take home and sync up to Mac/PC

    Apple mainly sell content (singles & video) but the Mac mini inside also offers to deliver computers and accessories to your home. Apple stores are about to go from 100+ to 10,000+ in every mall very quickly.

    “Can you Vingle a movie or U2’s latest album on the way home?”

    MW: right – could I be?

  27.  
    This feedback log reads like phenomenological hermeneutics.

    Since nobody seemingly can make sense of the application, then, possibly, Apple’s trademark protection request may be too descriptive (not distinctive enough) to qualify for protection.

  28. I think this is just a hoax to keep everybody guessing, I bet there are a bunch of Apple exec’s Steve included that are having a good laugh at us trying desperately trying to make something out of nothing.

    Gotto go got to try and get some work on on my fadoogle, it’s having problems with it’s shmangle.

  29. It’s pronounced van-glay. It’s a new word describing wine-induced hallucinations that cause people to smear themselves with day-glo body paint and run through traffic jams chanting “we-do, we-do, we-do, we-do.”

    Actually, I vote for video single.

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