Deutsche Telekom Trademarking Hotspot

from the that's-nice dept

With the growing popularity of WiFi hotspots, Deutsche Telekom has apparently seen an opportunity, and has put in a claim to the World Intellectual Property Organization for a trademark on the word "hotspot", which is the generic term most people use for any WiFi-enabled area. Meanwhile, the big Spanish telco Telefonica has put in their own trademark request for "hot spot" (that space makes all the difference). Hopefully both claims will be thrown out since there's such widespread generic use of the term already. I can just imagine all the ridiculous lawsuits that would happen if DT suddenly tried to enforce such a trademark.
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  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Jul 2003 @ 9:59am

    Pretty Stupid

    Pretty absurd. And if they are granted? Then "hotspace", "iportal" or a dozen other words that a bunch of marketing types could spit out in a few minutes will be picked up and used.

    And it's not like the trademark holders get royalties or have stopped the generic uses for "refrigerator", "kleenex", or "coke" (which can mean any type of pop in some parts of the U.S.). They may stop other companies from using it, but it won't stop the vernacular.

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