for those of you wondering, the company was supposed to send brochures and marketing material about the product and the company. it is an excellent learning opportunity for the kids and the best use of a marketing budget out there.
Posted on 04/17/2006 7:13:16 AM PDT by Panerai
Apple's corporate policy for dealing with unsolicited ideas may be changing. The company held a special meeting to discuss ways to improve its cold-hearted, boiler-plate response to any unsolicited improvements or suggestions submitted to the company, after it found out that it shattered a nine-year girl's heart. According to CBS 5 News, 9-year-old Shea O'Gorman wrote to Apple CEO Steve Jobs as her class was learning about writing business and formal letters. The third-grader wrote Jobs to offer suggestions on improving her iPod nano, such as adding song lyrics so listeners can sing along to their tunes. Although it took three months, the company finally responded to her letter--although it was not what O'Gorman and her family were expecting. Instead of a polite response from Jobs, the girl received a cold, stern letter from Apple's legal counsel telling her that the company didn't accept unsolicited ideas and that she should not send any suggestions to the company.
Apple's full legal policy, designed to protect itself from protracted legal battles about royalties and licensing from submitted ideas, was available online, according to the letter received and read by both O'Gorman and her family.
"She was very upset, and kinda threw the letter up in the air and ran in her room and slammed her door," the girl's mother told CBS 5 News.
Although Apple declined to comment on the story, a company representative reportedly called the girl to offer an apology (following an inquiry by CBS 5 News); in addition, the report says that Apple held a special meeting last week to discuss ways in which it could improve its corporate policy when dealing with children.
"How many lawsuits do you think would have been filed if Apple had, for example, written back to people who suggested adding video to the Ipods a " thanks for your suggestion " letter before they got around to putting one into production ? "
Exactly. Companies must protect themselves from the crackpots who try to get rich by contesting intellectual property rights by claiming to have given the company an idea. It can be expensive to prove that you were working on an invention for 5 years before someone from out of the woods sends you a letter suggesting it.
Any action you can take to quash the karaoke attitude is a good thing.
Steve Jobs... yet another 'caring' liberal.
__________
LOL. Freepers politicize EVERYTHING. Whether needed or not. In this case, NOT!!!!
A PR guy sends a response to a customer (Mr Jobs I'm sure is 12 levels removed from this person's day to day doings), and you post a comment about Mr. Jobs' politics, as if his politics are relevant to the topic at hand.
too funny.
Probably easier to do with the volume of mail received on Theremins versus what is received on iPods was mine.
Sure, Apple could've handled it better.
Then again, I don't see the reason for the girl to react as she did. (Sounds to me like the parents are playing it for effect.)
Apple isn't slone in having this policy. GM, Ford, IBM, et al,. They do not want someone to solicit any ideas mainly because they possibly have a program already in progress to developt that very idea. A case a few years back was about a guy suing GM because they "stole" his idea for wiperless windshields. They had to prove in court that they had already invented ithe idea several decades earlier and declined to use it in their products...............
Well, there are polite ways and rude ways to communicate that message, and Apple comes in for some legitimate criticism if they used one of the latter. Without seeing the letter, there's no way to tell.
for those of you wondering, the company was supposed to send brochures and marketing material about the product and the company. it is an excellent learning opportunity for the kids and the best use of a marketing budget out there.
Dead.....With a couple of bullet holes in you....
Seems to me the "liberal" is the girl's mother.
Welcome to Reality!!
i'm just wondering why a 9 year old has an ipod nano?
First thing, you kill all the lawyers....
"Any action you can take to quash the karaoke attitude is a good thing."
LOL - I've got enough of an issue with them dancing to music that only exists in their earphones - now we're supposed to put up with them singing along ( loudly ! ) with music noone else can here ?
... there are enough people on the streets who do that allready !
As a former Apple cheerleader, it continue to amaze me that a huge number of people still see Apple as warm and fuzzy.
Followed by their lawsuits. I have to agree with Apple on this one, though I'd think they could have the person who suggested the feature, or their parents if underage, sign some sort of agreement.
I'd also think that a letter just only received by a company suggesting a feature or product could spark a lawsuit if that feature or similar were introduced later, even if it was developed as an idea of their own internal development division which never saw the letter.
"Instead of a polite response from Jobs, the girl received a cold, stern letter from Apple's legal counsel telling her that the company didn't accept unsolicited ideas and that she should not send any suggestions to the company.
"
Here's another sort of letter Apple could have sent:
You can bet this little girl is going to get a hand-written letter from Mr. Jobs now.
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