Apple has been granted a patent for Podcasting.

Podcasts are audio or video files created by broadcasters or amateurs. The podcast was made popular by Apple’s iPod, from which it took its name. The name was first mentioned by UK reporter Ben Hammersley in the Guardian newspaper.

The word Podcasting was declared word of the year in 2005 by the New Oxford American Dictionary, notes Patently Apple.

Now that Apple owns the rights to its podcasting process it could make it difficult for third parties to use the word podcast to describe their offerings and for non-Apple software for making podcasts, although it shoudl be noted that the patent pertains to improved podcasts and techniques that facilitate their use, rather than the term, Podcasting.

Apple has its own Podcast app, which it updated recently following a number of stability issues.

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