Jobs To Developer: “Not That Big A Deal”
Posted 11/21/2009 at 8:34am
| by J.R. Bookwalter

Apple has always been fairly aggressive in protecting their product trademarks and likenesses, as
The Little App Factory recently discovered when they received a letter from the law firm of Baker & McKenzie asking them to change the name of their Mac software, iPodRip.
iPodRip, originally written in 2003 at the MacHack developer conference, lets you copy and transfer your songs from iPods/iPhones to your computer, which comes in handy if your hard drive ever dies or you lose songs that you’ve downloaded.
According to CrunchGear, iPodRip has been downloaded more than five million times and has helped users transfer over a billion songs back to their computers.
However, including the name of the product in the name of your application has always been a no-no with Apple, as The Little App Factory CEO John Devor found out
when he e-mailed Apple CEO Steve Jobs directly about the problem.
Believe it or not, Jobs replied — curtly.
“Change your apps name. Not that big of a deal.”
The missive was signed “Steve” with the customary “Sent from my iPhone” signature attached.
Needless to say, the developer changed the name (now simply iRip) and also removed an iPod icon from their Evom software, which lets you covert and transfer movies from your computer and the web.
Problem solved.