A recent trademark discovery in Singapore has revealed that Apple has been granted a trademark for Podcastgo under the Registered Trademark number T0620256D. Apple had filed their original trademark application under International Classifications 38 and 41. The specifics presented in their filing generally covered entertainment services over global networks including broadcast television and wireless telecommunications. It should also be pointed out that Apple interestingly added web conferencing services as a possible future service related to this trademark. Apple’s specific filing verbiage related to International Classes is listed below for your convenient review. Podcastgo is currently being used by another party in the US.

International Class 41: Entertainment services, namely, providing mobile video content for online distribution by means of a global computer network, cable, satellite, wireless and traditional television; entertainment, namely, providing content in a show broadcast over television, satellite, audio and video media and the Internet.

International Class 38: Streaming of video material via the Internet, cable, satellite, wireless and traditional television; transmission of sound, video and information; video broadcasting; communications services, namely, transmitting streamed sound and audio-visual recordings via the Internet; telecommunication services, namely, local and long distance transmission of voice, data, graphics by means of telephone, telegraphic, cable, and satellite transmissions; web conferencing services; electronic voice messaging, namely, the recording and subsequent transmission of voice messages by telephone; wireless digital messaging services.

In a related 2007 trademark filing for their Podcasting logo, Apple simply described their mark as “consisting of a stylized person or antenna surrounded by concentric circles/broadcast waves.”

Apple’s Podcastgo Trademark Challengers

Call it a legal hiccup, a conflict or perhaps even confusion on the part of the Trade Mark Office, but Apple’s trademark for Podcastgo travels a very strange course. As you’ll note below, the initial flow of the Asian Trademark Office’s e-forms clearly illustrate that Apple owns this registered trademark via the International Registration (IR) number noted as 894741, for trademark TO620256D. The Application was made in May 2006 – and another e-form (not shown) notes that it was registered in November 2007.

In the final hyperlink pertaining to this trademark’s chain of e-forms, both Apple registration and trademark numbers remain the same – but somehow PodcastGo Inc. becomes an Assignee. The confusion however, comes into play when the assignor turned out to be AMP1 Productions, Inc out of New York and not Apple Inc.

What are the chances of two completely different legal entities/companies owning the same registered trademark and being granted the very same Trademark and International Registration Numbers? – Try zero. Unless it was sold, that is – and there’s no indication of that being the case according to the trademark “Ownership History” segment of the filing. So what we’re left with is a bit of confusion.

Until this trademark resurfaces at some point in time at the US or European Trade Mark Offices, the ownership of this trademark could remain a mystery. The facts noted above in the form of partial screenshots, clearly indicate that Apple is the registered owner of this trademark. And for the record, Apple used the Singapore Trade Mark Office to hide their year 2000 “Mobile Me” filing. Apple’s US filing for this trademark only surfaced in January 2006. So the wait could be awhile.

NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents and/or trademarks with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent and/or trademark applications and/or grants should be read in its entirety for further details.

Written and researched by Jack Purcher.