Apple Stretching iPad Trademark to Pad

Apple, Inc owns the trademark for iPad because it was purchased from Fujitsu. Because they own the trademark, they must defend it from misuse. Sometimes, though, Apple goes too far.

9to5 Mac received a copy of a application rejection letter in which the reason for the rejection was due to the use of the word Pad in the application name. No, not iPad but Pad.

I believe Apple is stretching when they point to their rules and fail to include the section regarding the use of variations, part of which suggests the following:

3. Variations, Takeoffs or Abbreviations: You may not use an image of a real apple or other variation of the Apple logo for any purpose. Third parties cannot use a variation, phonetic equivalent, foreign language equivalent, takeoff, or abbreviation of an Apple trademark for any purpose. For example:

Not acceptable:   Appletree      Jackintosh      Apple Cart      PodMart

I doubt variations are defensible against an army of lawyers but Apple is going to have trouble because they have allowed several large enthusiast websites using variations, for example, particular domains are not allowed by the same page and yet they exist. This site was originally named AppleiPadBuzz and was changed due to the same rules.

Defending trademarks is a slippery slope but Apple is landing on the wrong side because Pad is used in many common applications (e.g., TextPad). Actually, because Pad is such a common term, it simply shows how weak the trademark is for Apple. More important, Apple should be supporting developers and not getting in their way.

Basically, for Apple to win this argument, Apple lawyers are going to need to rewrite the rules on that page. Pronto. Otherwise, some enterprising young person is going to challenge the variations section. And win. After all, the trademark is iPad and the variation Pad is too common for Apple to reject.

Let me know your thoughts?