Microsoft Trademarks the Trademark Symbol
By Vince Sabio HumourNet Communications, Ltd.
REDMOND, Wash (UPI) - Software and marketing giant Microsoft
Corporation (MSFT) announced today that it has purchased the rights to
the well-known "trademark" symbol, formerly denoted as "tm" in most
print media.
The symbol is commonly used to identify commercial product names that
have not yet been registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office.
"It was a natural," commented John Schexnader, of Microsoft's Ministry
of Information. "Several of us were sitting around after a board
meeting a few months ago, and we were talking about what we should buy
next. We were tossing around the idea of purchasing a country or two
in South America, as kind of a follow-up to Sun Microsystems'
trademark-infringement claim against The Island Formerly Known As
Java, when it occurred to us that there are no countries named
'ActiveX.' We talked about changing the name of 'ActiveX' to 'Chile'
or 'Brazil' -- which would also help distance it from all those
recently-uncovered security holes -- when someone
joked that we'd save a lot of time and effort in the long run if we'd
just trademark the trademark symbol."
Schexnader continued, "At first, we all just laughed -- but one look
at Bill's face, and we knew we'd be on the phone with the Patent and
Trademark Office in the morning."
Microsoft hasn't wasted any time enforcing the new trademark.
According Rue B. Goldberg, an attorney with Microsoft's Ministry of
Litigation and Law Enforcement, "Use of the 'tm' symbol will now be
restricted to Microsoft and its subsidiaries, like the Catholic
Church."
But companies wishing to use the '(tm)' symbol will not be left out in
the cold; according to Goldberg, Microsoft has developed a new symbol,
'(tMS)', to replace the now-restricted '(tm)' symbol.
"Anyone will be able to use the new symbol, royalty-free," states
Goldberg, "though Microsoft reserves the right to charge for its use
in the future."
Response to the announcement was varied. Apple Computer CEO Gil Amelio
vowed to take the issue to court, stating, "Apple Computer developed
the technology for the trademark symbol more than ten years ago," but
refused to give any details on the exact nature of the lawsuit.
Meanwhile, Times-Mirror Publishing, Ziff-Davis, the L.A. Times, the
N.Y. Times, CNN, the Washington Post, Newsweek, and Kathy Lee Gifford
all agreed that it was a landmark move. According to William Spangler,
Electronics and Pet Food Editor for the Boston Globe, "[Microsoft's]
recent acquisition of the trademark symbol will benefit computer users
worldwide. It's a technological breakthrough. As always, the rest of
the computer industry is just struggling to play catch-up."
So, what does the future hold for Microsoft and its latest
acquisition? Microsoft Ministry of Information spokeswoman Alice
Gilbert says that Microsoft is moving quickly on similar purchases.
"Our next [acquisition] will be the 'service mark' symbol. We already
have the paperwork in place for it." Gilbert stated that the new
symbol would be 'sMS', following the trend set by the new trademark
symbol.
"It's a natural for us," concluded Gilbert. But apparently, the sky is
not the limit at Microsoft. "We'd also looked into acquiring the
rights to the 'registered' trademark symbol, but several
representatives from the Ministry of Technology determined that doing
so would lead to an infinite loop in the trademark registry -- and the
only place where we permit infinite loops is in our software. Our
standards are very high here at Microsoft."
But that fact has not deterred the software and marketing giant.
"Instead, we're looking into purchasing the entire Patent and
Trademark Office," stated Schexnader.
No one at the Patent and Trademark Office could be reached for comment
Tuesday.
Copyright 1997 by Vincent Sabio, HumourNet Communications Ltd. All
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