We note that your clients' PODCAST READY and MYPODDER marks consist in substantial part of Apple's IPOD mark, and contain Apple's POD mark in its entirety...

Thus goes one sentence from the two-page letter that Apple's lawyers sent to Podcast Ready's lawyers. Since we don't have permission to display the letter, we instead offer a quick summary of the high notes of just exactly who owns the rights to the word "Podcast" and "Pod."

• The word "POD" has also been adopted and used extensively in the marketplace by consumers as an abbreviation to refer to Apple's iPod player. (Huh?)
  

• Apple has "no general objection," after all, with the use of the word "Podcast" in "Podcast Ready" - "so as long as it's used as part of a trademark for goods and services offered in the podcasting field."
  
• The guess is that Apple objected to the use of "Pod" in Podcast Ready's "myPodder" software partly because "myPod" sounds like "iPod," and also partly because myPodder is a software designed to manage audio file downloads (in this case, podcasts). That makes the software like iTunes (the letter doesn't reach this conclusion, but we're betting that must be what has Apple tweaked).
  
• That and probably because myPodder is also designed to work with the iPod.

The issue's gotten so far that Leo Laporte, Person of the Year in Podcasting, suggests we could use the word "netcast" instead, if Apple successfully yanks out the word "Pod" from common electronica usage. Speaking of which: do you guys call your iPods or mp3 players "Pods" for short?