User:Laaabaseball/sandbox/2

Legal use of the term
As of September 2007, there have been 29 attempts to register trademarks containing the word "PODCAST" and 8 attempts to register trademarks containing the word "PODCASTING" in the United States. On February 5, 2005, Shae Spencer Management LLC of Fairport, New York filed a trademark application to register PODCAST for an 'online prerecorded radio program over the internet'. On September 9, 2005, the United States Patent and Trademark Office rejected the application. The rejection notice cited Wikipedia's podcast entry as describing the history of the term. However, As of September 19, 2005, several known trademarks capitalize on the term.

On September 26, 2006, it was reported that Apple Computer started to crack down on businesses using the word 'pod' in product and company names. Apple sent a cease-and-desist order that week to Podcast Ready, which markets an application known as myPodder. Lawyers for Apple contended that the term "pod" has been used by the public to refer to Apple's music player so extensively that it falls under Apple's trademark protection. It was speculated that such activity was part of a bigger campaign for Apple to expand the scope of its existing iPod trademark, which included trademarking "IPODCAST," "IPOD Socks," "POD." On November 16, 2006, Apple Trademark Department returned a letter claiming Apple does not object to third party usage of "podcast" to refer to podcasting services and that Apple does not license the term.


 * In 2005, it was reported that Adam Curry had anonymously edited the podcasting entry on Wikipedia to remove credits from other people and to inflate his role in its creation. The business model of Curry's podcasting network Podshow has since been criticised by many in the industry, and has been accused of exploitative practices in its dealings with independent podcasters.