Third-graders letter to Apple draws legal response
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Apr 17, 2006 at 9:51am
A third-grader’s letter to Apple regarding some iPod suggestions got a cold, legalese response from Apple’s legal department, reports CBS 6 in San Francisco.
“A South Bay mom told CBS 5 that her young daughter’s letter offering suggestions on how to improve the Apple iPod prompted a harsh response from the company,” the story says.
Apple’s policy is to not accept unsolicited suggestions in order to protect the company from legal disputes. However, Apple is considering different methods of handling situations when children write the company on such matters, reports AppleInsider.
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
Jason Says:
This is absolutely nothing new. They have been this way for years, and say that right on their website. Apple’s policy is to dissuade any input from outside of the company. Though the way they do it is strongly suspect, I can completely understand why. Apple already has a habit of stepping on toes when it comes to innovations, and with the legal environment the way it is these days, anything submitted and taken is at the risk of someone coming back and claiming rights to it, including monies or royalties, recognition, etc. The world has changed since the days of open suggestion and comment. If they took the idea and ran wit it, they run the rick of the parents or the child coming back and claiming responsibility for it. In this world, it is needed to protect one’s back, unfortunately.
But, on the way that Apple treats the public on issues like this, it has a major lesson to learn. Public Relations is something Apple’s legal department missed when being schooled. You do not crap on your followers. There are so many words in the dictionary that can be used to be cold and heartless like Apple legal is. Though there are worse, Apple legal is about as bad as it gets, and Apple PR is not any better. There are a few diamonds in the rough in both departments, but for the most part, both need a course in Winning Friends and Influencing Enemies. Press Relations is better to some extent. Customer Relations is hit and miss. Some are really good and some are as fu to deal with as collection agents.
Posted on April 17, 2006