In this blog I’ve often mentioned the name of my late friend Bertrand Dufresne, who passed away 10 years ago this year. Despite all the good memories I have with him, I wanted to remember him through an object he offered me once.
The eiPott was this short-lived thingy made by Koziol in 2010: a small, colorful plastic dish where you could eat a hard-boiled egg.
The name (and the very shape of the thing, really) comes from the German words “Ei” (meaning “Egg”) and “Pott” (meaning… “pot”). And needless to say, the name was a pun around the word “iPod”, whereby in German you would pronounce “eiPott” similarly.
Of course Apple did not appreciate the joke, as the Mac Observer and many other news outlets reported back in the day. It was far more than a simple “cease-and-desist” thing; Apple literally took the infringement to the courts, and a German judge sided with Steve Jobs on this one. The settlement involved some fines and everything.
I remember posting a message on Twitter (remember? Yeah, those were the days) about the eiPott, and then I got a call from Bertrand, and we were both laughing uncontrollably about the thing for a while. We both thought it was as brilliant as it was clumsy; he had a law degree, so he knew that playing such a game wasn’t going to come for free. But he loved the pun, a lot.
And next thing I know, a few days later I received a package in the post; a Koziol eiPott, bought by Bertrand and delivered to my place. He was like this. I still have my eiPott, proudly displayed in my home office, and every time I see it I remember him.
I miss Bertrand. 2016 was really a terrible year. We lost so much.