October 21, 2004

Retropod Squashed by Sony

The RetroPod was a handmade iPod case created from a vintage Sony Sports Walkman shell.

Received the following letter from Sony:


"Sony recently learned that you are selling a case for carrying an iPod personal
stereo that is made from a WALKMAN tape player. The product is being offered at your website at www.retropod.com.

Your use of casings for such a purpose is a clear infringement of the SONY and
WALKMAN marks because it is deceptive. Consumers likely will be misled and deceived into believing that Sony is somehow connected with the iPod personal stereo when in fact it is not. Moreover, they will be misled into thinking that Sony is backward in its design of products and is going away from miniaturization, as the size of the tape player housing is quite large by today's standards."

way to go Sony, clamping down on transformative recycling, nothing backward thinking about that...

via PeterALopez

Posted by steev at October 21, 2004 06:19 AM
Comments

I think Sony's letter is fair enough. It states without being excessive that it has a problem with the reuse of its name and logo for specific reasons and suggests that if the housing had been reused and the logo photoshopped off the website pix, then you might have had no problemo.

Just a thought.

Posted by: Ray at October 26, 2004 11:45 AM