Jobs personally denies developer’s name change request
After receiving a legal snot-o-gram from Baker & McKenzie asking his company to change the name of one its applications so it would no longer contain the word “iPod,” Little App Factory CEO John Devor decided to take matters into his own hands and write Steve Jobs personally. Surprisingly enough the Apple CEO actually responded, though this story doesn’t have a happy ending.
The original email via CrunchGear
Dear Mr. Jobs,
My name is John Devor and I’m the co-owner of a small Mac shareware company named The Little App Factory and a long-term Apple customer and shareholder. I doubt you’re aware but we recently received a letter from a law firm working on Apple’s behalf instructing us that we had violated several of Apple’s trademarks in our application iPodRip and asking us to cease using the name and Apple trademarks in our icons.
… [edited for length] …
I myself dropped out of school recently to pursue a path in the Mac software industry, and you yourself have been a consistent inspiration for me.
If there is anything at all you can do with regards to this matter, we would be most grateful.
Best,
John Devor
And, Mr. Jobs terse reply:
Change your apps name. Not that big of a deal.
Steve
Sent from my iPhone
Well, the Little App Factory application in question was called iPodRip, but now carries the legally harmonious “iRip” moniker, and the iPod image is gone as well, though it seems to have been replaced by an iMac (image above) — interesting.
In a slightly more just world, Apple would have licensed iPodRip as a “Made for iPod” product just like any other — ten bucks is ten bucks, right? I mean that’s value meal lunch for three days.
On a lighter note, I’m guessing Steve never read the article that opines that people who use the “Sent from my iPhone” signature are at best annoying…
What’s your iPhone or iPod touch email signature say?
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November 19th, 2009
Surprise, surprise. More snobbery from Apple’s Chief Executive Snob. Steve can rest assured that he, along with the rest of his “holier than thou” cult, will never see a dime of my family’s money.
November 20th, 2009
Bring on the wet nurses for all the poor developers making money from other people’s products…
iPod is a trade mark and owned by Apple… yeah?
If they are chasing rulings on cloners and similarities with logo’s [Woolworths Australia] then they’ll damned well pop you for using their trade mark if your products make money from theirs… There’s no free ride bud…