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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."

4 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. Where was this article in July? by LostCluster · · Score: 5, Informative

    The first comment to the article links to the USPTO page for the applicatoin where the status shows that the opposition period went by without anybody noticing, so the mark is one step closer to being validated. It appears only the dependable USPTO is left to block this thing on its own.

  2. Cloud opportunity by darealpat · · 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.

    --
    For every present, there is a past
  3. USPTO record by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here is the U.S. Patent and Trademark listing: CLOUD COMPUTING

  4. I say let them have it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... if it means nobody else will be able to say "cloud computing" anymore I am all for it. Now it someone would have been able to trademark Web 2.0 life would be good.