Monday, August 14, 2006

Has Apple gone too far?

Even if the product you make doesn't look, smell, feel, or do anything remotely close to what an iPod does, and even if consumers can't buy it on the shelves in a store, that apparently doesn't mean Apple won't <A HREF="http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=3482">release its legal dogs</A> on you if the name of your product includes the letters P-O-D. That's exactly what's happening to Dave and Carolee Ellison, owners of Mach 5 Products--a small, family operated business that makes games for arcades--the kind that either spit out tickets as a reward for your performance or the crane-oriented games where you take your chance at retrieving a stuffed animal or some other toy with a hand-operated crane. The Ellisons created an arcade machine-mounted device for tracking profits, and named the device "Profit Pod." When Apple got wind of it by way of the Ellisons' trademark application, it sent a threatening letter to the Ellisons demanding they cease and desist.

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