Chalk one more up in the long line of Apple’s oppressive heavy handed corporate tactics. Apple wants sole domain of the term "pod". With ipod sales' cooling it doesn’t surprise me.

The company Podcast Ready developed software to allow podcasts to be delivered directly to digital music players (article). Key thing there to notice is "digital music players" not just Apple’s iPod...Apple fans think on that for a bit... I’ll wait........ok done?

Microsoft...I mean Apple had this utterly ridiculous response:

"The term pod has been adopted and used extensively in the marketplace by consumers as an abbreviation to refer to Apple’s iPod player."

Um what the heck? Hey man come listen to my pod. Who the heck says that? Pod has been and is everywhere and like it or not “Podcast” has become a generic term.

“Podcasting" was declared last years "word of the year" by The New Oxford Dictionary defining it as "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program made available on the Internet for download to a personal device."

Ernest W. Grumbles III, a partner in Merchant & Gould’s litigation practice in Minneapolis said in a recent MacNewsWorld article, "it strikes me that a court would think it is unfair to create a new generic term and then try to establish rights to it." (read article)

This particular use of the word "pod" is not a slam-dunk case for Apple, agreed Gregory Rutchik, senior counsel at Liner Yankelevitz Sunshine & Regenstreif in San Francisco. "Podcast Ready is a service, and 'podcasting' describes a behavior," he told MacNewsWorld. That said, it can also be argued that Podcast Ready is an assault on iTunes, he added.(read article)

Now I have probably already lost any Apple fans after the first sentence of this rant, but here is a company that has survived on an anti-establishment mythos and is anything but.

Podcast Ready is technology that enables any digital music player to download podcasts directly. It does what iTunes does for everyone else. It’s clear that “podcast” has become a generic term for a audio XML feed, but Apple wants to keep users trapped in their own little world.

They make software for their hardware only. Apple has always been in its own little proprietary "pod". With proprietary software, hardware, and computer accessories since it began, and they tried to hold on to that for as long as they could get away with it in their computers. Once that ship sailed they are trying the same strong arm non competitive tactics they always have with their music players.

Perceived underdog or not Apple has always been about money and always will and the myth of being outside the evil corporate world will continue to be perpetuated in the minds of those blind rabid fans who don’t dare admit to themselves they have been suckered.

It doesn’t shock me for a bit that Apple is once again in fear of free market competition even though they spin themselves as champions against that type of oppression.

From her Web site, Terryfic.com, Wilson markets a line of decorative, patterned laptop protectors that she calls Tightpods. She offers the handcrafted Spandex covers in more than 70 tones and patterns, including Gold Lame, Tiger, Snake and Tropical Hibiscus.

Wilson, who has been making her computer covers for about a year, settled on the name Tightpod because the covers fit snugly, and they protect their contents, like a pod. (read article)

But she got a happy cease-and-desist order from Apple.

The order from Apple reads in part: "The Tightpod mark will inevitably cause consumer confusion as to the source of the products, and dilute Apple’s famous iPod mark."

This is typical Steve Jobs logic who once said that Apple doesn’t make two buttons mice because it would confuse their consumers. Apple views people as morons.

The most interesting point came in a user comment on one of the articles:

Just a touch ironic that a company who violated a patent agreement over a name (Apple v. Apple Records) would then sue another upstart over a patented name.

- Rodney, New York

I rest my case.

Related Articles:

Apple go to war over 'pod'

MACNEWS: Apple’s 'Pod' Police Dropping Hammer on Trademark Offenders

MACNEWS: Apple’s Claim to 'Pod' Rights Questionable