“Tonight will celebrate the second anniversary of ‘iPod Monday’ at downtown Des Moines [Iowa] bar the Lift, 222 Fourth St. But it also will serve as a wake of sorts as the playlist-sharing theme night ends due to a trademark dispute,” The Des Moines Register reports.
The Des Moines Register reports, “Computer and iPod manufacturer Apple Inc. has asked iPod Monday’s creator and resident bartender, Clint Curtis, to remove any mention of ‘iPod’ from the event to satisfy Apple’s trademark guidelines. Curtis has decided to pull the plug on the weekly ritual rather than continue under an altered identity.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Genericide: The process by which a trademark becomes synonymous with its associated product, to the point where the owner may lose the ability to legally defend and protect said trademark. See: “aspirin,” “escalator,” “q-tip,” etc. Trademark owners may take various steps to reduce the risk of genericide, including educating businesses and consumers on appropriate trademark use, avoiding use of their marks in a generic manner, and systematically and effectively enforcing their trademark rights. More info here.
Related articles:
Apple legal team pressures ‘iPodder Lemon’ name change to ‘Juice’ – November 15, 2005
Apple asks iPod accessory vendors to stop using ‘iPod’ in their names, URLs – September 19, 2005
Apple adds video to iPod trademark – August 03, 2005
Do a deal for $0.02 to license iPod, sign NDAs.
Most important about dealing with lawyers: Don’t always take their advice.
Cubert…
What bit of a Cease and Desist letter are you having a problem understanding?
weak…..
Let’s ask ourselves how we’d feel if we were living in a bizarre parallel universe and the bar owner was running a “Zune Tuesday” and Microsoft’s lawyers sent a C&D.
Now let’s face facts and recognise the fact that Microsoft – for all its inability to deliver a product that we’d want to use – would ever waste its time on this sideshow.
Genericide, indeed. What happened to Public Domain? As in, how long does the word, iPod, have to be in the lexicon before it becomes a word describing an MP3 music player?
Spare the video player hoohah, I’m speaking generic here, as in generally the machine plays MP3s.
Brand name is especially important to Apple. They don’t release produts named The LTFH-8389 mps/aac/blt/asap player. They think about product names and don’t want them to get washed out. It may seem silly to go after small-fry stuff like this, but being consistent has its points.
Ton Palmans & What Language have really good rational points.
Fanatic Realist,
This is the text of the email sent to the webmaster. It doesn’t seem to be that harsh. I just wondered how far Apple was willing to pursue this matter.
Dear Clint —
With respect to the podcast and associated site, iPod Monday, Apple has determined that your product name, which incorporates the word “iPod”, violates Apple’s trademark guidelines. Apple’s trademark guidelines are available on the web at:
http://www.apple.com/legal/trademark/guidelinesfor3rdparties.html
Please choose a name for your product that is consistent with Apple’s guidelines (that does not include iPod or any other Apple trademark or variation thereon). As you are probably aware, you can change the name of your podcast simply by changing the RSS feed. To move the URL for the podcast, you should use both the itunes:new-feed-url tag and an HTTP 301 redirect. More information about moving feed URLs in the iTunes spec:
http://www.apple.com/it/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html.
We thank you for your interest and support, and look forward to resolving this issue.
Best regards,
Pete Alcorn
Apple iTunes Podcasting
Why not simply change the name of the event to “Playlist Monday” instead of “iPod Monday”… Seems like a simple enough change, everyone would still “get it”, Apple would be satisfied and the Iowan’s can still have their Monday night fun.
I just don’t see why some people have to make a mountain out of a grain of sand is all…
Hano
Apple went way overboard here. They did not need to do that, they could have just granted permission to the event to use the name. Apple is a big corporation just like any other, dont forget it.
Can any lawyer out there reading this let us know why Apple could not offer license agreements for the iPod name? Many people have asked, but I don’t see an answer.
Just wondering. And wishing Apple didn’t “have to” be so heavy handed.
Or call it “Aye…Pod Monday”
or if you prefer: “Ayayay Pod Monday”
So can when will iPoddailynews will be dismantled?
Apple needs to lighten up a bit … This is ridiculous!
More lawyers justifying their existence … oxygen thieves all of them.