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April 30, 2006

legal

Gone missing: “iPod” from URLs

Posted Apr. 30, ’06, 1:54 PM PT by Scott Silverman
Category | Legal

ipod boxAccording to Jason O’Grady of The Apple Core, it seems that Apple’s legal team is at it again in their quest to remove the name “iPod” from any and all URLs or product names. Most recently, the iPod enthusiast site iPod Garage will be changing its name to iProng this coming week. According to founder of iPod Garage Bill Palmer, the change is voluntary. He claims he never really liked the name “iPod Garage” to begin with and that the name was limiting them to be seen as “Apple fanboys or cheerleaders.”

That reasoning sounds a little fishy to me. Let’s take a look at the past. Remember in July of 2005 when iPodLounge.com became iLounge.com? They changed their name because “the next stage of this phenomenon will be bigger than any one product Apple may produce.” Later on, in September 2005, Wired News reported that several online retailers received legal notices from Apple demanding they stop using the iPod moniker in their URLs and names.

Taking a quick look at Apple’s trademarks and copyright guidelines reveals that “You may not use an identical or virtually identical Apple trademark as a second level domain name.” Despite what any site may give as reasoning for an iPod-less name change, it certainly seems that Apple’s lawyers are out to protect their territory.


2 Comments

Oliver said:

So why do they never try to stop companies/websites from using 'mac' in their names, or even iCal (iCalshare.com) or any of the other trademarks they own.

Seems a bit inconsistent (even hypocritical) to me.

April 30, 2006 10:44 PM
Caty Tota said:

You guys are the 16804 best, thanks so much for the help.

July 31, 2006 3:13 PM

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