Following Google"s insistence that media outlets shouldn"t be using the term "Googling," Apple Computer has become similarly protective over the word "pod."
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company has sent cease-and-desist letters to at least two companies that include the word "pod" in their product titles, in connection with its iPod digital-music players.
Mach5products.com, which sells a device for collecting data from vending machines called Profit Pod, received one of the letters. TightPod, which manufactures laptop-protecting covers, got another.
A blog on ZDNet News posted what purports to be a letter from Apple"s lawyers to Carolee and Dave Ellison, who run Mach5products. The letter reads: "We believe there is confusing similarity between Apple"s iPod mark and the Profit Pod mark. Both devices receive and transmit data, and are used with computers, both are used in connection with video games, and both have other similar components. Moreover, it has not gone unnoticed that, like Apple"s iPod device, the Profit Pod product is a small, flat, round-cornered rectangular device with a display screen."