Apple is known for ruthlessly enforcing its trademarks, hunting down firms large and small for borrowing the names of Apple's brands.
A desperate developer whose app was rejected over its name--iPodRip--appealed personally to Steve Jobs, whose curt reply was: "Change your apps name. Not that big of a deal."
Laying claim to 'iPod' is one thing (after all, it's one of Apple's best-known and most-successful products). Now, it seems Steve Jobs may be calling dibs on the word 'pad.'
TUAW explains
In an email from Apple, journalPad developer Chris Ostmo was told he would need to remove the word "pad" from his app's name in order to get his app updated on the App Store. Ostmo then sent an email to Steve Jobs asking him why the App Store policy had changed after a number of apps had already used the word "pad" in their names. Jobs' reply? "It's just common sense not to use another company's trademarks in your app name."
But has Apple really trademarked the word 'pad?'
The developer was directed to an Apple website listing with the company's trademarks. However, as 9 to 5 Mac points out, there is no 'pad' trademark, "only 'MacPad' and 'iPad' are listed." Perhaps Jobs meant something else in his email--but we can't be completely sure.
On HuffPost reader suggests that the font Jobs was using to read the developer's may have made the letters 'i' and 'l' look the same at a quick glance--that is, the font could have confused JournaLPad (JournalPad) and JournaiPad (JournIPad). (Although JournaiPad sounds like a rather awkward name for an app.)