I received an email from Todd over at the PCN network (the PC stand for podcaster) about the fact that Apple is going after people who use the word POD in a trademarked product.
This is not only the word POD, but the word Podcast. Luckily my two audio streams leverage the word CAST in them not POD. So I am CoffeeCAST and DataCAST (which Todd hosts for me over at PCN network. But getting a cease and desist letter for the use of a term that I am not sure Apple was using as a product or trade term seems a bit harsh.
Some say that the use of pod could dilute their brand. OK, I can see that this could be. Xerox had this back when they invented the photocopier and everyone referred to them as Xerox copies. The difference in this case is that here they allege that by using POD or PODCAST you are causing them trouble.
I believe that trademarks should be inforced and that is a hard thing to do, but the bad blood that this may cause on Podcast may bite them in the butt, just when things are going well. We can reflect back to the Web 2.0 issue of a few months back…
