ITWire

Dell is not the first to attempt to get trademark protection for the term 'cloud computing' by a long chalk. That distinction would go to the NetCentric Corporation which made its unsuccessful application way back in 1998 before cloud computing as we understood it even existed.

It only took a year to kill off that particular dead duck, but it does help draw attention to one thing: cloud computing as a generic term has been around for a while. And that, says the Industry Standard is rather interesting.

Interesting because, according to its own research surrounding the original Dell application which was dated March 23rd 2007, the Industry Standard discovered that the New York Times was discussing cloud computing in general terms as far back as 2001. Some six years before the Dell application.

Writing on Slashdot, Ian Lamont says that "A quick search of Google News indicates that Dell itself did not use the term in press releases or discussions with indexed English-language media sources from 1996 to 2006."

Curiouser, and curiouser.

Sam Johnston, meanwhile, did some digging and published his findings in the Google 'Cloud Computing' Group. He discovered that Dell did not seem to be getting a trademark for its own variation of cloud computing technology, but for the generic term itself.

The thing is, because nobody lodged any complaints during the formal publication for opposition process, it looks like the mark is now pending and likely to drop into the lap of Dell. well, it will at least proceed to registration assuming that Dell can submit suitable examples of its that is.

So what does this actually all mean? Does Dell now own the trademark to Cloud Computing and nobody else is allowed to play without its permsission? Read page 2 to find out...

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