How Microsoft Takes a Name

An anonymous reader writes "According to a report in the "Seattle Post-Intelligencer," the Windows Defender name was already being used by an Australian developer, Adam Lyttle. His Windows Defender product protected Windows users from malicious Web sites. Adam Lyttle told the Post-Intelligencer's Todd Bishop that Microsoft contacted him a month ago, charging him with infringing on the Windows trademark but neglecting to mention that the software giant wanted to use the "Windows Defender" name. Lyttle subsequently signed over rights to the name to Microsoft and was "shocked" when he later learned the company intended to use the name for one of its own products. "

Comments

Just like they did with Windows Commander

[Synli]

Windows Commander is now called TotalCommander. Guess why.

Re:Hmm

[pubjames]

A trademark is a trademark.

What the hell is that supposed to mean. Just because Microsoft has registered "Windows" as a trademark doesn't mean there aren't lots of legal ways you can use the word, especially with it being just a generic word.

Re:Hmm

[Rakshasa Taisab]

Sure, but Microsoft does not have a trademark on the word Windows, not in this nor any other domain. They got Microsoft Windows trademarked. Windows is, and has been for a long time, a generic word in the computer field.

Re:sign of the times

[Jason Earl]

Heck, if he had been paying attention he would have realized that "Windows" isn't a registered Trademark, but that "Microsoft Windows" is instead. The trademark-ability of "Windows" featured prominently in Microsoft's case against Lindows. Microsoft *paid* Linspire over $20 million to stop using the "Lindows" trademark.

Re:Okayyy

[bill_mcgonigle]

Microsoft didn't "deceive" anybody.

How do you figure - according to TFA they told him he was violating trademark laws when he wasn't.

Re:Um...

[Formica]

Microsoft does have the trademark to the word "Windows" in Australia, where this happened. You can search the Australian database to confirm that: http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/atmoss/falcon.a pplication_start

Re:Um...

[pornking]

Of course. Bash Microsoft and you get modded up to 5.

1. Microsoft decided they want to name a product Windows Defender.
2. They discover that someone else is using the name.
3. They inform this guy that he is infringing on their trademark.
4. He decides not to challenge them.
5. He signs over all rights to the name.
6. Microsoft announces Windows Defender.

You claim that Microsoft has no trademark on Windows. That's irrelevant. The guy decided not to fight.

According to the article, he probably was infringing on their trademark. Microsoft is under no obligation to reveal their product plans to anyone least of someone in a position to potentially profit at their expense.

Now, the guy's bitching that they didn't tell him while insisting that he would not have wanted a cut. Sounds like sour grapes to me. Now he's acting like he got the shaft while insisting that he would have given them the name freely if they had just trusted him with their confidential marketing plans.

He lost nothing that he wouldn't have given up freely, (he claims) while gaining publicity and some misguided sympathy.

Some people just have no class.

Re:Um...

[Arker]

Windows alone, even in the realm of computer is in NO WAY specific to Microsoft. Every system with a GUI has Windows, and there were many such systems long before Microsoft even had a GUI themselves. There's a reason they wound up paying Lindows to rename...

Re:Um...

[AstroDrabb]

The MS trademark(R) on Windows was upheld in Europe when they were trying to force Linspire(formerly Lindows) to change their name. However, in the USA, injunctions were rejected and rulings were handed down that could have limited Microsoft's ability to defend the Windows trademark. So the MS lawyers feared losing the Windows(R) trademark in the USA and dropped the case in the USA and paid Linspire(formerly Lindows) to change their name and hand over the lindows.com domain(s). Some of this information comes from here. You could also search Google to see a bunch of news on the Lindows vs Microsoft case.

Oh, and origianlly in 1993, the USPTO rejected the Windows mark:

the term Windows is widely used, both by the public consumers, and the relevant industry, to name a class of goods or a type of software, that is, a genus of goods, referred to as windows programs or windowing software. The term Windows was in existence and known prior to adoption by the applicant. Since the term is a generic designation for the applicant's goods, then, no amount of evidence of de facto secondary meaning can render the term registrable.

Re:sign of the times

[Rudolf]

Heck, if he had been paying attention he would have realized that "Windows" isn't a registered Trademark, but that "Microsoft Windows" is instead.

I don't know about the rest of the world, but that's certainly not true in the United States. Looking at the trademark database at the USPTO website shows that Microsoft Corporation holds the trademark "Windows"

Registration number is 1872264, serial number is 74090419.

http://www.uspto.gov/index.html

Microsoft is the corporation everyone loves to hate, but at least let's keep the facts somewhat straight.