Trademarks apart
iPod quote: “I get the shuffle and then I shuffle the shuffle.”, said US President George W Bush to reporters in December 2005 when he showed off his iPod Shuffle that he got from U2 singer Bono.
The iPod trademark
This is perhaps the most confusing entry in this website. It’s not clear who registered first the iPod trademark.
I found at least 3 versions for the same story!
The first one states:
“Joseph N. Grasso of New Jersey had originally listed an ‘iPod’ trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in July 2000 for Internet kiosks. The first iPod kiosks had been demonstrated to the public in New Jersey in March 1998, and commercial use began in January 2000. The trademark was registered by the USPTO in November 2003, and Grasso assigned it to Apple Computer, Inc. in 2005.”
The second one states:
“FACT: The original and first registered use was in Australia.
The inventor was: Hugh GRAY JP
Company Registered Business name: i-Pod .
In 1993 and 1994 the name i-Pod was first used by a company in Brisbane, Australia, and they have the original copyright, the original one was an internet kiosk for free email access and advertising for the worlds fiirst online Trading post. which was upgraded from Bulletin board to web based. And Apple computer is aware that the company name i-Pod was registered and in use in Australia way back in 1994 with kiosk being made and sold at that time, the name i-Pod came from sitting down and trying to work out whether to call the kiosk either information Pods or Internet Pods. In the end it was decided to just use the name i-Pod and so the name was registered with the Queensland State dept of Business names.
The CEO/CIO of the company was Mr Hugh Gray of Brisbane Australia and he came up with the concept and the name.”
Finally, the third one states:
“Athol Foden, a naming expert and president of Brighter Naming of Mountain View, California, noted that Apple had already trademarked the iPod name for an internet kiosk, a project that never saw the light of day. On July 24, 2000, Apple registered the iPod name for “a public internet kiosk enclosure containing computer equipment,” according to the filing.
Chieco said the internet kiosk is probably a coincidence. He suggested that maybe another team at Apple registered the name for a different project, but because of the company’s penchant for secrecy, his team wasn’t aware what the other had done. And neither, apparently, was Steve Jobs. Chieco said neither Jobs — nor anyone else — seemed aware that the company had already registered the iPod trademark.”