No Trademark for Cloud Computing

August 14th, 2008 by Julia Lim

clouds-jwn6 Just a couple of weeks ago, it was reported that Dell was in the final stages of being granted a trademark on “Cloud Computing” – shocking and amusing pretty much everyone except for possibly Dell employees. But apparently the US Patent and Trademark Office paid attention to the flurry of negative responses and has since cancelled their “Notice of Allowance” for the trademark.

I’d like to give everyone the benefit of the doubt here; perhaps Dell was using it in a much narrower sense. Perhaps the term has really only been used more commonly since the time Dell first applied for the trademark back in March 2007 and now. BUT…

- Dell’s definition is quite broad and certainly not Dell-specific. “The design of computer hardware for use in datacenters and mega-scale computing environments for others; customization of computer hardware for use in data centers and mega-scale computing environments for others; design and development of networks for use in data centers and mega-scale computing environments for others.” Strike One.

- And according to the Wall Street Journal’s research, “cloud computing” has been in regular use since 2001. Strike Two.

So now the “case” has been returned to examination and hopefully the PTO will follow up on everyone else’s research on this and decide that yes, cloud computing is one of those broad, ubiquitous terms that should NOT be trademarked by a single company.

Popularity: 12% [?]

August 14th, 2008

2 Comments Add your own

  • 1. Mickey  |  August 16th, 2008 at 2:36 am

    Dell Denied: ‘Cloud Computing’ both desciptive and generic

    [Reply]

  • 2. Links List 8.22.08 | Scie&hellip  |  August 22nd, 2008 at 3:45 pm

    [...] Maybe not a “bozo” move but certainly inadvisable given how ubiquitous the term is. Here’s our take on [...]

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