The normally litigious Apple Computer is now attacking Podcast Ready and myPodder, according to Wired News. This follows attacks on Tightpod, and the Profit Pod, which has nothing to do with iPods. After that, we can presumably expect Apple's lawyers to sink their fangs into Captain Birdseye for references to peas in pods.
According to Wired News:
Podcast Ready CEO Russel Holliman said he'd consider dropping the name myPodder if he had to, but "Podcast Ready"? If that's infringement, Apple is claiming that it owns the word "podcast." Sure, the word originated with the word iPod, but most people now see it as a general term for downloadable audio shows that isn't affiliated with one brand more than another.
Will Apple succeed in defending the word "podcast" as its own trademark? We'll just have to wait and see.
Comment: "The term 'podcasting' was one of several terms for portable listening to audioblogs suggested by Ben Hammersley in The Guardian on February 12, 2004," as Wikipedia notes. However, podcasting as we know it was invented before the iPod was even launched.
It seems likely that Apple benefits from the association of the podcasting with iPods, even though Apple didn't invent portable digital players, didn't invent online music stores, and didn't invent podcasting: all of these things were originally done -- and can still be done -- without using or referring to any Apple products or trademarks.
As someone remarked back in March, when Apple was attacking bloggers, "Even the most die-hard Mac hugger is having problems defending the company's recent litigious spree, where Apple seems determined to become 'The Man' and use its corporate power to crush all before it."
