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Dell Tries To Trademark "Cloud Computing"

Posted by kdawson on from the head-in-the-clouds-or-perhaps-some-other-orifice dept.

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."

2 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. Ah Ha! First Post! by CranberryKing · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    What about just 'cloud'? Can can trademark the sky!

  2. Re:Not only sneaky morals, but... by jlarocco · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    I would think the only exception is where a technical term actually gets created out of word that is already trademarked. Like "Xeroxing a paper". That did use to be a technical term in the past. I am sure there are others.

    "Xeroxing" is not, and was never, a technical term. It's the name of a company, Xerox, that makes copy machines.

    The whole reason Dell wants this patent

    Sigh. Did you even RTFS? Dell is trying to *trademark* the term, which is something completely different than a patent. The difference is brought up in almost every single article on /. involving copyrights, trademarks or patents. How can anybody not know the difference by now?

    --
    Maybe not