Dell Loses Bid To Trademark "Cloud Computing" 146
1sockchuck writes "The USPTO has issued a 'non-final determination' refusing Dell's request to trademark the term 'cloud computing' (we discussed the application earlier), finding that the term is generic and 'therefore incapable of functioning as a source-identifier for applicant's services.' According to Data Center Knowledge, 'Dell has the option of filing a response to submit arguments to dispute the USPTO examiner's findings.'" Here is the USPTO's ruling. A week and a half ago the PTO cancelled its 'notice of allowance' for the mark, a move little remarked upon at the time.
Humanity (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Humanity (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Humanity (Score:5, Funny)
i've looked through my file and found you are in violation of my patent on the inhalation of air. please stop stifling innovation and pay my royalties you freedom hating commie.
"Uh, prior art." - God
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i've looked through my file and found you are in violation of my patent on the inhalation of air. please stop stifling innovation and pay my royalties you freedom hating commie.
"Uh, prior art." - God
Where have you been?!
Oh I see. When it comes to profits you're Johnny on the spot, but when it comes to the rest you're just moving in mysterious ways.
Re:Humanity (Score:5, Funny)
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Not me. (Score:2)
Not me. Feeling sad about that is patented, and I can't pay the licencing fees. :(
Re:Humanity (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe it'll come to that one day. Look at what Monsanto pulls. Trust me, if Monsanto had their way, they'd own all food production in the US. Then they'd jack the prices up 50x, since its been shown that we Americans have enough disposable income to be able to make it to work and back when gas prices rise 400% in two years.
1. Plant a field of GM crops.
2. Test neighbor's crops for patented GM markers.
3. Sue neighbor when nature spreads the GM genetic markers to other fields.
4. Profit, force neighbor to burn their crops.
5. Buy out their field and plant a field of GM crops, watch his neighbors get nervous.
Movie about Monsanto's use of patents (Score:2)
The movie is about a plan of a big corporation, Monsanto to get control over the food supply, using its patented genetically powerful weed-killer Roundup, and patented seeds that are resistant to the weed-killer.
This is how Monsanto does it: Monsanto patented and sells a genetically modified versions of normal food crops. Inevitably, some of those plants spread and be
Re:Humanity (Score:5, Informative)
google terms: monsanto sue neighboring field
results:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Corporations/PSchmeiser_Monsanto.html [thirdworldtraveler.com]
Googling for the litigant (Percy Schmeiser) brings multiple sources for the lawsuit, including wikipedia
I can confirm this as well (Score:5, Interesting)
I live in Illinois and several friends have been threatened by Monsanto over their crops having illegal plants. They tell us that if we buy Monsanto's seed we won't have to worry about being sued, but if we don't, "something could happen, these plants can spread, and you won't be legal". They make it sound like the burden is on the farmers to ensure their crops don't "infringe" rather than Monsanto making sure their modified product can't spread.
Posting anonymously because I don't care to be sued.
Re:I can confirm this as well (Score:5, Informative)
After having been through the area - I'll take 'legal' blame and fight that one in a heart beat. They tried that up here in Maine and got their asses handed to them. They're the makers of Round-Up and Agent Orange as I recall?
Maine doesn't have as many potato acres as Idaho but I guess we're second. They tried similar crap up in Houlton, Maine (way up north) and got tossed out on their asses. Sort of like the RIAA got tossed out. We're not a commonwealth but we seem to treat out of staters that way.
Illinois and Indiana both had strange signs marking the brand of crop they were growing, that was odd to me but then we went west. I'd never seen that before.
GM foods have a place, I think that place is in the bellies of hungry people or people who opt to eat it. My understanding is that they have things like the golden seed which will grow fricken rice in the damned near desert but it is unaffordable and doesn't germinate.
So, yeah. Post non-AC and blame it on me. Say I stole control of your PC... They can ask /. and they can give 'em my IP and they can come try that here in Maine. Potato, blueberry, and timber is all we have left. They, like the RIAA, were tossed out on their arses. I was amused.
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Sheesh. I guess no industry is immune to this whole trademarking / patent trolling issue. For some reason I thought agriculture might be. Silly me.
Re:I can confirm this as well (Score:4, Insightful)
They, the seed breeders, seem to be the worst. With GM comes the desire to protect their property as they see it. This is one of the cases where I see it failing. If the fricken wind blows a seed onto your property you're guilty? WTF?
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If the wind blows a seed on your property and their crops begin to grow on your property, then sue them for littering, trespassing, etc since you did not authorize it. It's almost as if I had a stack of paper napkins just sitting on a picnic table, then all of a sudden a big gust of wind blows them away and blows them into the street, neighbors yards etc. Since the napkins belong to me, I could be fined for littering if I do not clean them up.
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If the wind blows a seed on your property and their crops begin to grow on your property, then sue them for littering, trespassing, etc since you did not authorize it.
Or even better, at least if you grow your own crops, sue them for tainting your crop with their unnatural genetically modified product.
Re:I can confirm this as well (Score:4, Funny)
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What needs to be done is to burn their fields preemptively. You know, just in case.
Well, they're called Frankenfoods ... and you remember what happened to Baron Frankenstein and his creation. I believe that incident also involved pitchforks.
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so there is one case of this happening, not exactly the rape and pillage scenario we are lead to believe. it's also worth noting in the end schmeiser didn't have to pay monsanto anything.
GM has plenty of benefits, less toxic chemicals are needed in a GM crop and todate there is zero evidence that there is any ill effects on humans.
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cite please. Really the horrible thing about Monsanto, is it is a violation of their license to collect seed from your own crops for the next years season. They require that you buy new seeds each year.
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He collected seeds from his own plants. His plants, his seeds. He had every right to do it. Now if you claim he stole the seeds, or stole the pollen used to create the seeds *then* that might be a valid point. Until then, he isn't doing anything except using his own property.
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It is all over the place. My wife and I toured America by car and spent a lot of time in the corn belt (great country) and they abhor it. There are cases of dealers who don't sell ANYTHING related to GM seeds being sued. I was in Indiana and Illinois for a week and a half and down towards North Vernon there was one case that was on-going that they were complaining about and as we went across a ferry in Illinois (it was a free one, buggered if I know where though) we stopped for a bite to eat and that's wher
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So no, it does not make me sad.
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Now it's just time to go and invalidate a lot of other too plain trademarks. Just think of one that we use daily...
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And the slashdot average for reading comprehension drops yet ANOTHER notch.
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What part of that confuses you?
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We'd better hope like hell Apple's not trying for a subterranean patent there.
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It ate a couple hundred MBs yesterday but the server lived so, well, I think that it applies once more in this case.
http://whathostingshould.be/ignore/inflation.jpg [whathostingshould.be]
(Please don't mod this post funny mods, I got those points yesterday in a different situation - save them to mod someone's insightful post up.)
That's Rt. 15 in Greenville, Maine at the entry to Woody's Tavern.
If we're talking patent trolling then, well, that'd be about what they owe.
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My friend, if you can rotate your eyes 360 degrees, you deserve the patent.
too bad (Score:5, Funny)
If they got it, no one else could use this worthless buzzword. Now everyone has a chance to launch cloud computing on the web 2.0 while hyping it in the blogosphere.
*Sigh*
Re:too bad (Score:5, Funny)
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Cloud Computing? You mean they wanted to be *that* closely sssociated with vaporware?
Oh no! Snakes have invaded Slashdot.
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Cloud Computing? You mean they wanted to be *that* closely sssociated with vaporware?
It's worked well so far with Steam...
Re:too bad (Score:5, Funny)
Just wait till cloud computing supplants networking as everybody's favorite buzzword:
"Hey Bob, yeah, I'm just cloudin' with some clients, be with you in a sec."
"We have an impressive cloud infrastructure and our services can allow anyone to become more cloudy."
It's going to happen! :(
And of course, we can't forget the groan worthy puns from news agencies "Cloudy days ahead for Dell!" - ugh.
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Re:too bad (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:too bad (Score:5, Funny)
Re:too bad (Score:5, Insightful)
"Cloud computing" is the "web 2.0" buzzword for "Internet". It's used primarily to confuse investors and venture capitalists who remember how poorly the "... on the internet" fad turned out in the late 90s.
The other words were made up to help solidify the illusion that "cloud computing" is something new.
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Uh, no. Cloud computing is a buzzword for non heirachical distributed infrastructure for services. If you have a set of nodes and any node can be any type of server, and the control of which node runs which service is part of a distributed infrastructure which self nominates nodes for running services based on some metric such as speed of storage, local need or need for offsite redundancy then you're in the cloud. Control of the cloud is yet another redundant self managed service.
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Wyse, Google Apps, etc...
Err, if you're old enough? Dumb terminals and the mainframe but the mainframe is the 'net. Yup... It's a retarded buzzword.
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Interesting, the Wikipedia page mentions a few companies:
No Dell...
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Wikipedia to the rescue: Cloud computing [wikipedia.org]
In short, it is a service where apps and data are stored "in the cloud" -- the cloud refers to the symbol used in diagrams to depict a network you have no knowledge nor control of the technology. Kinda like a black box, but very buzzword-worthy and makes you look cool. For example, Apple's Mobile Me is a cloud computing. It stores web 2.0 apps that you use to sync your computer with other devices. You don't need to know how Mobile Me works at Apple's data center, you
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Generally, it describes a webserver or service that runs on multiple computers where any of the computers can be removed/replaced without stopping the service.
A good example (perhaps _the_ good example:-) is GFS. [google.com]
It expands the concept of a cluster - in that most clusters the database servers and perhaps the NFS/SAN run on dedicated, specialized machines vs. the cloud running all services on the same kind of machines.
The big advantage for the webhost/service provider is that (theoretically) they can run all
Re:too bad (Score:5, Informative)
Another term as bad as "cloud computing".
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Re:too bad (Score:4, Funny)
From most of the blogs I've seen, I think "clouded thinking" would be more appropriate.
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Actually, no. The correct symbol is "sm" - Web 2.0 isn't trademarked, it's servicemarked.
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Quite correct. Though they could consider trying "cloudware." It has all the buzziness of "cloud computing" and all the value of "vapourware." It could be one of the most apt buzzwords ever.
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Re:too bad (Score:5, Insightful)
How would you describe cloud computing in two words without using a 'worthless buzzword'?
Distributed Computing
Re:too bad (Score:4, Funny)
Q: How do you say 'goddamn idiot" in two words without just saying it?
A: "Anonymous Coward"
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That, my good fellow human, was priceless and I want to subscribe to your newsletter.
I kid you not. That was pure entertainment at its finest. For that I thank you but I'll be expecting wit like that daily in my inbox.
Slashdot Poll (Score:5, Funny)
a) Dell's Cloud Computing
b) gEverything has it, or it doesn't exist
c) Skynet's primary self awareness functions
d) Cloudboy Neal
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e)Internet
We already have it and it describes the same thing as this "new?" cloud computing initiative. No one has ever networked a bunch of resources together before and made them available...
The Scots already did this ... (Score:5, Funny)
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What did Mick Jagger say when he caught Hugh Hefner doing Dennis Weaver (TV actor)?
"Hey Hugh, get off of McCloud!"
(sorry, couldn't resist)
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Damn you, I'm going to have that song going through my head all day now. ;P
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Could be worse, I'll have the mental images...
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Different Approach (Score:1)
Heck of a lot more fun to say.
Next trademark attempt - Clod Computing (Score:5, Funny)
i.e. - Computing for idiots.
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I Think Microsoft got that one years ago.
Re:Next trademark attempt - Clod Computing (Score:5, Funny)
I'm a clod, you insensitive... um...
Cloud computing patent-free (Score:1)
WtF (Score:5, Informative)
I work for a company (a bank) that seems to apply a trade/service-mark to random word combos in at least every third or forth sentence of any marketing--even internal materials. I envisage a child claiming "mine" all the time or using a label maker ad nauseam.
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my upcoming patent (Score:2)
don't think about patents, think about lawyers, ideas, money, food or sleep. i will issue promptly cease and desists emails and letters.
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In entirely unrelated news, (Score:2)
Microsoft announces its new product for distributed computing architectures, "Microsoft Cloud".
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I thought it was Microsoft Cloud Server 2008.
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No, no, I heard it was Microsoft Cloud Server 2008 Enterprise Edition. ..bruce..
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That really depends on how many computers are in the cloud. The Datacenter Edition would be needed for large clusters, like, say... this Internet thing I keep hearing about.
A million duhs screaming out (Score:5, Insightful)
Everyone on the streets had known that. Dell had known this from the START. The patent lawyers for Dell ALSO knew this. What is surprising is that the USPTO knew this.
Re:A million duhs screaming out (Score:5, Insightful)
Okay, ignore those examples, but at least they didn't let Trump trademark You're Fired.
But seriously, why do companies think they can trademark phrases they didn't create? Q-Tips, Kleenex, Xerox, these are creative trademarks that people easily associate with their respective products. Who the hell is gonna hear Cloud Computing and think Dell? Now, when I hear the word Dell my mind is flooded with a whole cocaphony of phrases I would rather forget (Dude, you're Getting a Dell!)
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But seriously, why do companies think they can trademark phrases they didn't create?
Because they know that sometimes they will get away with it and if they succeed it gives them a nice stick to bully thier competitors with.
Also remember that many of the companies involved are multinationals. That means if they get the trademark in loads of countries even if it is one that wouldn't hold up in court they have a lot of bullying power (see: windows vs lindows).
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The USPTO has a fantastic trackrecord.
Considering their workload, budget, and constant abuse from ignorant citizens and journalists, they do indeed have a fantastic track record. Of the tens of thousands of items passing their desks each year, most people tend to fixate on the ten or so stupid moves that someone chooses to bitch about. It happens. It can't be perfect, and even if it could, it would cost more than anyone is willing to spend.
When Microsoft wanted to trademark their new graphical OS that dispays applications in windows (a concept created by another company) Windows, did the USPTO let them?
Did they have a choice? Microsoft doesn't have a trademark on the use of the term 'windows' (either ge
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Did you actually look up the trademarks for those?
Last I heard, the trademarks Microsoft owns are on "M
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Not quite so sudden (Score:5, Insightful)
This article is tagged "suddenoutbreakofcommonsense", but U.S. trademark law is typically endowed with a little more common sense (a little) than copyrights and patents, the other major areas of IP law. For example, how trademarks can only be held so long as they're actually in use. Compare this to copyrights applying for the life of the author plus seventy years; as a result, abandonware sites can and often are prevented from providing software titles years after the publishers have ever tried to make them available for a profit, or at all.
I expected that Dell would lose this ridiculous trademark bid and I'm pleased that the USPTO acted appropriately. Nonetheless, I'm sure that my fellow Slashdotters will be all too happy to expose my ignorance by providing plenty of counterexamples of trademark-related idiocy.
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The tag "suddenoutbreakofcommonsense" is one of the most overused tags on Slashdot; along with "hardhack" (when the article is obviously about a softhack) and "goodluckwiththat". I'd like to see those three tags used a little more sparingly, since tags are used to look up older articles. "Oh, it was tagged with 'hardhack'. I'll just... fuck... three hundred pages of results...".
In other news... (Score:1)
What They Wanted (Score:3, Insightful)
I think that Dell got the ruling they wanted. This was a preemptive move. Now, they have prevented anyone else from trademarking 'cloud computing'.
A purely defensive move.
If only this worked with patents.
What a coincidence ! Just on the day i lost my bid (Score:2)
well. apparently the patent office hates innovation.
Isn't it sad... (Score:2)
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I for one am glad. It means we can keep using this new buzzword for at least another three years. I just can't handle learning new buzzwords too fast.
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A Caddyshack reference on Slashdot, I'm impressed.
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That might have sounded sarcastic but it wasn't, one of my favorite movies.