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X-Box Name Dispute In The Works

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the drop-down-drag-out-fight dept.

Machina writes: "Seems Microsoft was a little late in claiming their X-Box Trademark . "Microsoft (MSFT) could face a legal challenge to its use of the Xbox name for its forthcoming videogame console. Microsoft filed its claim to the name with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Oct. 18, 1999, but a Florida company registered its use of the Xbox mark with the USPTO on March 10, 1999. "

3 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. no problem for microsoft by gumis · · Score: 5

    they will just switch to $-box name..

  2. Profiteering/squatting by CarrotLord · · Score: 5
    sure, this other company may have got in before MS, but check this quote:

    "Microsoft is spending a lot of money promoting it and I think [the Xbox name] is as valuable to them as it is to us. If they want us to part with it, it's up to them to determine how much they think it's worth," Van Leeuwen said.

    Seems to me as if what they are really wanting here is to profit by letting MS invest a lot in their trademark, and then hitting them with a conflict to get money out of them. Surely they would have heard of XBox long ago -- surely they would have been able to contact MS and say "er, no, we have that name" much earlier, so MS would be able to get a new name form the start... but no, it appears that they hvae let it go long enough for it to be worth MS's while to pay them out rather than find a new name...

    rr

    --
    Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
  3. Wow, I wonder... by MWoody · · Score: 5

    Whoah, I'm so confused! Do I side on the point of pointless, belligerent legislation, or on the side of the Satan-spawned megacorp Microsoft? Is there some legal way they can _both_ lose?

    Hear that sound? That's the heads of thousands of Slashdot regulars exploding.

    ;-)
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