Hollywood actor turned Des Moines bartender, Clint Curtis has been livening up Monday nights in Des Moines with his iPod Mondays. Every Monday night for the past two years a few dozen iPod owners have gathered at the Des Moines bar “The Lift” to share music and knock back a few brews.
Not wanting to do anything untoward, Curtis contacted Apple about using the name and sent Apple regular iPod Monday updates. Curtis received no response from Apple despite the fact, according to Curtis, that iPod Mondays have helped sell more iPods than any employee at the entire West Des Moines Apple store.
Everything was going well, Apple selling iPods, Curtis enlivening Des Moines nightlife, music lovers having fun. Then some trademark lawyers decided squashing an iPod evangelist was more important than customer good will. Apple representative Pete Alcorn fired off a cease and desist letter to Curtis demanding that he not use any variant of an Apple trademark in association with his weekly Des Moines meetings.
Unless Curtis hits the lottery, I doubt he will have the resources to test the merits of Apple’s position. Just chalk it up to another hip company turning on its loyal fans. Kneeing the little groupie in the neck seems to undermine the most recent Apple ad campaign – at least a little.
Maybe one day I can be big enough that I can afford to bully my loyal customers. Here’s to crossing my fingers that this trademark attorney never gets that big in the britches.
iPod Mondays Des Moines Apple Clint Curtis
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