ipod
09/05/2006, 10:05am, EDT
Tuesday, September 5th
Apple pays woman not to use 'Pod'
Apple will reportedly pay a New Jersey woman to stop using the word "pod" in the name of a protective case she designed for laptop computers, according to The China Post. Terry Wilson, 53, who sells the "TightPod" over the Internet, said Apple contacted her after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office said she would soon receive a trademark for the product. The woman wouldn't say how much Apple agreed to pay toward costs of the name change; however, Apple was seeking to keep her trademark from diluting the iPod brand and also protect its own trademarks: "I'm going to be changing the name," Wilson, of Medford Lakes, New Jersey, said yesterday in a phone interview with the publication. "I know that sounds like I'm a sell-out, but I don't have the resources to litigate a trademark case." Apple spokesman Steve Dowling wouldn't comment, according to the report.
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It's a generic word, and is often used to denote products that enclose a person or machine. Perhaps Apple shouldn't have chosen such a common term if it was so concerned with "dilution". Geez.
I won't comment on her "pair" as she's a woman just like me, but I will say she's a coward and a wimp. People giving in to this sort of thing is precisely why it keeps happening!
The article clearly said that she was about to be granted a trademark on her porduct name, which is why Apple approached and most likely offered her a nice sum of money to part with the name.
That's called a 'business transaction', not 'strong-arm tactics'.
Good for her, I say.
By calling the case a different name, she can appeal to a much larger consumer base.
Although, I have seen companies pay off people to get rid of certain websites that trashed the offended company. Perhaps she was smart by doing what she did by generating early income before the sale of her initial product.