I was just reading Russell Shaw's blog entry about his research on VoIP trademarks and patents here: AT&T will market VoIP | IP Telephony | ZDNet.com" href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/index.php?p=133"> Exclusive: I visit the Trademark Office and get the scoop on how AT&T will market VoIP | IP Telephony | ZDNet.com and decided to do some investigating of my own.
While doing a keyword search on "voip" like Russell, I too came across AT&T's application for a service mark on "VoIP is Everywhere". I agree with Russell - could be a new catch phrase or marketing term by AT&T.
But then I noticed a really interesting application. Somene is applying for a service mark on the generic word "VoIP". This reminds me of Amazon's controversial "one click" trademark.
In case you weren't aware, Amazon applied for a patent on "one click" ordering and sued other shopping sites that implemented this supposed "novel" idea.
In any case, the applicant attempting to get a service mark on "VoIP is "(APPLICANT) VOIP CORP FOR-PROFIT CORPORATION FLORIDA 7091 GRAND NATIONAL DRIVE SUITE 102 ORLANDO FLORIDA 32819"
Did a quick googlage, but came up empty. I have no idea what company this is. I'm no trademark lawyer, but how can they get a service mark (and potentially a trademark) on a generic term?
Then again, I'm sure lots of people "try" and get trademarks on stuff trying to make a quick buck (by reselling it or charging money to use the term) but their application is declined.
So this could be much adieu about nothing...
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Yes, people do try to obtain trademarks and service marks for these kinds of generic terms, but the US Patent and Trademark Office has a pretty good review process to prevent abuse.
I have gone through the process of registering two service marks -- COPYWRITER.COM (http://www.copywriter.com) and EMAILRESULTS.COM (http://www.emailresults.com). I did it all myself sans lawyer, and it was quite a process, but very educational. Every service mark application gets reviewed by a USPTO lawyer and has to get hung out on the laundry line for a period of time for public comment.
So I'm pretty sure the "VoIP" term is going to get shot down as a service mark. Unless the guy applying for it is the same one going around claiming that he is the inventor of VoIP and never got credit for it!
Al B. 12/14/04
Curious whether it is the same company that recently filed a patent for E911 service that uses a disconnected line to PSTN? The addresses of the two companies are different.
Guys dies anyone know if VoIP has been tademarked and if we can still use it on our websites in that fashion?