Well, there is such a device as an epod, and there is such a place as ibay, so I suppose it could happen (especially if you're running MacWindows.)

Really, the way words and even parts of words are being gobbled up by the copyright and trademark laws is astounding. And (now that Apple is unleashing its pod police) downright annoying:

If this tale were a summer horror movie, it might be called When Apple Lawyers Attack. Or perhaps The Pod Patrol.

Apple Computer Inc. of Cupertino, Calif., beloved by designers, graphic artists, and other creative types for its anti-Establishment mythos, has been going after entrepreneurs for their use of the word pod in their businesses.

Indeed, Apple has applied to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to register the word pod as a trademark, in addition to the proper noun iPod, which it already owns.

Medford small-business woman Terry Wilson discovered this when a letter made its way to her last month from the San Francisco offices of Townsend Townsend & Crew L.L.P.

From her Web site, Terryfic.com, Wilson markets a line of decorative, patterned laptop protectors that she calls Tightpods. She offers the handcrafted Spandex covers in more than 70 tones and patterns, including Gold Lamé, Tiger, Snake and Tropical Hibiscus.

Apple makes the iPod digital music player, which has been a sales and cultural phenomenon since shortly after its introduction in 2001.

Wilson, who has been making her computer covers for about a year, settled on the name Tightpod because the covers fit snugly, and they protect their contents, like a pod. Also, the word pod, she noted, has entered the popular vernacular to be identified with things hip and modern.

"When I filed for trademark protection ... a couple weeks ago," she said in an interview, "I got a cease-and-desist order."

The order from Apple reads in part: "The TIGHTPOD mark will inevitably cause consumer confusion as to the source of the products, and dilute Apple's famous IPOD mark."

I would have taken pictures to prove my claim, but alas! The dining room was dark that the picture would have been a blur. And my camera lacked a tripod! Hell, I didn't even have a unipod (a device also known as a monopod.)

Slashdot has also covered the pod police uproar, noting a vending machine device called "Profit Pod" and an older instrument called the "Bass Pod," but no one seems to have asked the Podiatrists' lobby to weigh in.

And what about the Pod People?

While I don't want to succumb to podophobia, at the same time I don't think this should involve podophilia. I think podophiles and podophobes alike might gain a new understanding of the problem if they look at the root cause of the problem -- which is the root word "pod" itself. (Copyrights are not copyroots.)

I blame the Greeks, not the Geeks.