Apple and a startup called Sector Labs (http://www.sectorlabs.com/) are apparently going to do legal battle over the 'Pod' trademark, reports "Gadget Lab" (http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/09/apple-goes-to-trial-with-startup-...). Sector Labs is developing a video projector dubbed the Video Pod -- and Apple doesn't like that moniker.
Apple and Sector Labs are undergoing a paper trial, in which each party has 30 days to gather and present evidence in paper form, to be submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Apple filed its 873-page paper on Sept. 20, and Sector Labs’ testimony begins Oct. 18, the article adds.
“My team started working on the Video Pod in 2000, and it took us years to go from prototype to funded,” Kokin told "Gadget Lab." “At that time, Apple didn’t even enter our minds as a competitor. Now it’s 2010 and I still don’t think Apple is interested in video projection, but I’m supposed to rename our product because Apple also uses ‘pod’?”
The VideoPod is described as a device for "next generation personal cinema." Sector Labs also makes the H2Glow, a temperature-sensitive faucet light designed to provide a visual indication of water temperature.
