Re:Apple sued over use of iCloud name
by ignifero on Sunday June 12, 2011 @05:31AM
(#2646159)
Apple seems to have filed 11 trademark applications for icloud, in sectors ranging from storage, streaming, telecommunications, social networking, entertainment, clothing, footwear etc. So it's not surprising that they will receive tons of objections for their applications from anyone who owns a bussiness with "cloud" in it. I think these are usually settled.
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I quick search suggests that icloud communications doesn't own the trademark icloud in any categories. There 13 records in the USPTO database, 11 applications by Apple, one by Douglas Dane Barker and one by Xcerion Ab of Sweden.
Re:Apple sued over use of iCloud name
by deadbadger on Sunday June 12, 2011 @06:53AM
(#2646263)
Registration is not a necessary condition for enforcement of trademark rights (although it obviously helps). In some jurisdictions, of which the USA is one, an established history of use can be sufficient to establish rights to a given mark.
So while iCloud Communications do not appear to have a registration for the marks, that doesn't mean they have no rights to them.
My understanding was that registration was necessary if you wanted to have standing to defend your trademark in federal court. Yet here I Cloud Communications is suing in US district court.