Dell Denied Trademark for Cloud Computing

September 3, 2008

It has recently emerged that the USPTO (the US trade mark registry) has denied Dell a trade mark for the phrase CLOUD COMPUTING SOLUTIONS on the ground that it is generic and used to describe a wide variety of computing activity.

 Dell spokesman said that ‘The application was to protect the use of the term ‘cloud computing’ as it relates specifically to our offering.  At the time when we announced our solution; it was not quite as pervasive a term…..’

It is interesting to note that had Dell applied to protect the term when they first began using it, they may have secured a trade mark, but may have had problems holding onto it.  Once the term CLOUD COMPUTING became more common in the industry, as it now is, it is questionable whether Dell would have managed to stop others using the term.  Someone may even have applied to have the mark cancelled on the ground of genericity.  For example, the term cloud computing is now used to describe the services that an Internet Company provides, and cloud services include Amazon Web Services or Google Apps. Information Weekly has an excellent paper which explains cloud computing and how it works.

 Dell now has 6 months to respond to the rejection before the USPTO makes a final decision.

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