Forum Moderators: not2easy
Microsoft introduced its Excel spreadsheet program in 1985, but didn't get around to officially registering its trademark until earlier this year.
[news.com.com...]
Technically, Excel is now covered under common law trademark, but man, someone could claim that since they didn't trademark it or enforce it, it is now a common use word.
Apparently, Office and Word are also not trademarked, but, I don't even know if they would be able to trademark those terms.
And they successfully defend the windows trademark by never letting it get to court. They buy off the other companies whenever they can.
someone could claim that since they didn't trademark it or enforce it, it is now a common use word.
I think lack of enforcement will play against them then, which is why companies often take a few cases to court or just threaten other people, ie trying to enforce it. I am pretty sure Microsoft did that at some point, and they are likely to use this approach to "prove" their trademark (AFAIK just like in the case with Windows (tm))
