Apple is ruining my future project!

I have a rather large website under development. But now it seems like a have to re-think its name and a lot of stuff in regards to which words to use. And why is that?

Well, scobleizer just led me to a post at Wired about Apple sending a “cease and desist” letter to Podcast Ready claiming that ‘Podcast Ready’ and the name of their product ‘myPodder’ infringe Apple’s trademarks. Wired also refers to other cases where Apple has been going after people who uses the word ‘pod’.

Out of fear of having my project ruined by Apple I’m now considering what to do. My plan was to launch a podcast search engine at my domain podcasts.cc. But that doesn’t seem like such a good idea anymore.

Since Apple’s lawyers aren’t going after the big boys such as Yahoo and BBC I think it’s obvious that they’re targeting smaller companies who can’t afford a huge legal battle. Maybe this is to get some sort of precedence set so they actually have a shot the big boys who’s probably willing to take up the battle.

I hope that someone takes up the battle and beats Apple. Because nobody should be able to own ‘podcast’. Apple should have “protected” their trademark years back when the term ‘podcast’ saw the light. Podcast is so widely used now with more than 200 million Google results, it’s used for the “Podcast and Portable Media Expo” (via Geek News Central) and it’s in the dictionary (via Micro Persuasion). So come on Apple.. wtf. are you doing?

So I’ll consider if I should find another name for my project. And maybe I should refer to the podcasts as netcasts.

At last I’ll just say, Apple bring something new to the table. Spend your money on innovation instead. I don’t see much new stuff coming from you guys. Most of your products has been made before. And in your beliefs of podcast, podcasts, podcasting, podcaster etc. being expressions because of the ipod, be honored that the words has become so popular and let us use them!