Apple issued a request to the Office of Patents of the United States to protect its trade name. Both Microsoft and Apple applied to have the iPod patented, but Microsoft had applied 5 months earlier than Apple, and now Apple faces a patent complication.
Major U.S. like (formerly ), , , and Sprint also filed to protect many of their wireless products including their and . Apple will have to change the scope of its patent in order to prevent it from clashing with that of Microsoft.