Technology IPThe world of technology is cut-throat. As it should
be if you consider the money involved, with the hype regarding
LinkedIn's listing being the latest example. On the trade mark
front, Microsoft is trying to cancel Apple's European trade
mark registrations for APP STORE. Why? The expression, says
Microsoft, is descriptive of stores offering apps (for the benefit
of the seriously old school, I should point out that 'apps'
stands for applications and not apprentices!) There is,
unsurprisingly, some history here - Apple has in the past claimed
that Microsoft's trade mark WINDOWS in generic.
The tech companies are all over the place with trade marks. When
Microsoft brought out BING to challenge GOOGLE, Steve Balmer, the
Microsoft big cheese who isn't Bill Gates, announced that he
hoped the word 'bing' would soon 'verb up'. By
which he meant that he wanted it to become a generic term for
searching. A bit like 'google' has some might argue. But
that would mean
