Dell Tries To Trademark "Cloud Computing" 130
Ian Lamont writes "The Industry Standard reports that Dell is trying to trademark the term cloud computing . The phrase entered the tech lexicon years ago, but Dell's application (serial number 77139082) was made in early 2007 to the US Patent and Trademark Office, apparently in connection with data center products and services that it was promoting around that time. A quick search of Google News indicates that Dell itself did not use the term in press releases or discussions with indexed English-language media sources from 1996 to 2006. Dell is not the first company to attempt to trademark this term: The Standard notes that NetCentric, a company that provided 'carrier-class Internet fax technology,' also gave it a shot in the late 1990s, but was rejected."
Cloud opportunity (Score:5, Interesting)
I was struck by the comment at the end of the article by a trademark attorney that no-one had opposed it when it was initially published. I think that points to a fundamental flaw in the process: who knows of or sees these things in order to oppose them?
Perhaps that is the clouded thinking that permeates the USPTO and the tech entities that use them to further their cause.
Re:New coin term: trademark troll (Score:5, Interesting)
The obviousness of some of the colloquial expressions protected under trademark in the US is sometimes quite surprising. Dish soap marketers, for instance, must be careful in how they describe the effective concentration of their product, because "a little goes a long way(tm)" is a trademark of P&G group.
Who else is using it? (Score:3, Interesting)
"Cloud computing" is one of those "next big thing" products here on slashdot, but who's actually using the term in their marketing? Plenty of people are selling "cloud" applications, but nobody's calling it that as most people think of "the cloud" as untrustworthy.
Is there an actual case of somebody like Amzaon's s3 actually calling themselves "cloud computing"?
Re:New coin term: trademark troll (Score:2, Interesting)
I even found a picture [flickr.com] of the truck (the TM isn't visible, but it's there, just to the upper-right of the "It's Rude To Stare"). Is there something I'm missing, or is the trademark world just that ridiculous?
Re:New coin term: trademark troll (Score:3, Interesting)
You have to remember that trademarks are much more limited than, say, patents.
If you patent something, you have exclusive say in who gets to use that patent for its lifetime. You can license it out at a price you decide, you can market your own product in a monopolistic fashion, or you can just sit on it. You can prevent anyone else from using something described in your patent, even if they invent it independently, even if they only use it privately, even if they're using it for something totally different than what you originally envisioned.
Trademark, on the other hand, only applies to a specific area of business. For example, you could have an Apple Records and an Apple Computer both trademarking the name "Apple" with no conflict. (The famous serious of lawsuits between the two was over Apple Computer's various forays into music.)
So yeah, you can trademark "It's Rude To Stare", but you're not going to get in trouble for using it with your vacuum cleaner business, and you're certainly not going to get in trouble for using it in everyday life.