An Excel By Any Other Name
from the but-wait... dept
Microsoft is now suing a company that offers an add-on product for Microsoft Excel which dares to use the word "Excel" in their name. This does certainly seem like Microsoft has a much stronger case than some other recent trademark disputes, as long as Microsoft can show that there's some confusion over who makes the add-on product. However, what seemed more interesting about this article was that Microsoft didn't even bother to register for the trademark on Excel until April of this year. The other company's defense is that they did a search and saw no registered trademark -- which is a reasonable defense, even if a registration isn't always necessary. Still, with all that money, and all those lawyers lying around, can anyone explain why it took Microsoft 19 years to actually claim the trademark on Excel?
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(Yes, I have worked contract at MS, and yes, it's always a problem to get the new contractor trained before the old contractor leaves.)
(No, I'm not bitter.)
(Yes, you're right--I should get back to work and stop adding meaningless addenda to this post!)
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