Palm Trademark position effects Loyal Supporters
Posted on Thursday, September 06 @ 18:02:07 PDT by CarlBrooks
"There's been something starting in the background of the Palm world that I feel people aren't really aware of. Since around 1999, many people have erected palm enthusiast or fan sites to support Palm, their products, and the people who use their products. In many instances the names of these sites have contained the word "Palm" (such as PalmGoddess.com and PalmGuru.com). Recently, Palm has decided that it needs to "protect it's trademark" against these and soon to be many other sites against violators. Funny how the violators are the very people who helped spread the word about Palm in the first place..."
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The trademarks PalmPix, PalmPrint, PalmPower and PalmGear are used under express
license from Palm, Inc. by Eastman Kodak Company, Stevens Creek Software,
Component Enterprises, Inc. and PalmGear H.Q. respectively. Palm trademarks
should not be reproduced or used without express permission from Palm, Inc.
The Palmgear service mark was secured just last month.
Word Mark: PALMGEAR
Goods and Services IC 035. US 100 101 102. G & S: Computerized on line search and ordering service featuring the retail distribution of handheld computers and accessories and computer software therefore; direct digital transmission.
FIRST USE: 19990731.
Filing Date: August 7, 2001
Owner (APPLICANT): Palm, Inc. CORPORATION DELAWARE 5470 Great America Parkway
Santa Clara CALIFORNIA 95052
Attorney of Record: Heidi E. Klein
Heidi apparently handles all of Palm Inc.'s trademark dealings, as her name appears on nearly all of the filings.
This is how the United States Patent and Trademark Office defines a trademark.
"A trademark includes any word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination, used, or intended to be used, in commerce to identify and distinguish the goods of one manufacturer or seller from goods manufactured or sold by others, and to
indicate the source of the goods. In short, a trademark is a brand name."
How does one contest someone else using a trademark similar to their?
"There are several ways to dispute use of a trademark by a third party.
Depending on the factual situation, the Trademark Office may or may not be the
proper forum. You should consider contacting an attorney, preferably one
specializing in trademark law. Local bar associations and the yellow pages
usually have attorney listings broken down by specialties."
Palm Inc.'s legal department has apparently began the process of "protecting
their image". Their lawyers are going through their long
list of loyal supporters and advising them of their trademark stand.
Interesting enough, there are many other trademarks that feature the word
"Palm".
PALMSCAN is registered to Ferret Instruments, Inc as of April 10, 2001.
PALMWORLD.COM is registered to International Data Group, Inc. as of September 1, 2000.
WEBPALM is registered to Webpalm, Inc. as of June 14, 2000.
THE PALM NETWORK is registered to Bayside Holdings Incorporated as of August 11, 2000.
PALM ROCKET is registered to Rocket International, Incorporated as of August 6, 2001.
PALMMAG is registered to Nu-Magnetics, Inc. November 13, 2000.
PALM PALS is registered to Joseph G. Angeletta as of June 14, 2001.
OFFICE IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND is registered to Collective Communications Corporation as of April 17, 2001.
PALM POWER! is registered to Barcelo Enterprises, Inc. as of May 2, 2000.
PALMTALK is registered to Softalk Inc. as of January 10, 2001.
PALMSEX is registered to Red Pomegranate as of August 14, 2000.
SMARTPALM is registered to Woolpert as of July 24, 2000.
PALMCODER is registered to TSI Telecommunication Services Inc. as of November 19, 1998.
PALMPERKS is registered to Smith, Miles T. as of June 24, 1999.
There are over 900 registered trademarks or service marks with the word Palm in it.
Palm's website expresses this:
"Third-party websites should not use "Palm" as part of their top-level domain names. After signing a no-fee license agreement, they can use "PalmOS" as part of their top-level domain names. They can also use "Palm" or "PalmOS" as
internal parts of URLs without permission as long as such use is not likely to suggest sponsorship by, or affiliation with, Palm."
Don't use: www.PalmCentral.com
Do use: www.PalmOSCentral.com (only under royalty-free license from Palm)
More information at http://www.palm.com/about/trademark.html
They have a right to protect their name, but at what cost are they willing to pay. Good and bad publicity comes without a direct cost to Palm; however, indirectly it has a huge price tag. Crazy stuff. I just hope Microsoft doesn't go after these guys (and gals) that are switching over to the domains with Pocket in their names.
Ironically enough PocketPC was registered and abandoned by Remote Access Devices, Inc on September 21, 1997. There is no record of Microsoft owning this as a trademark.
POCKET PC (with a space before PC) is registered to Pocket PC INC. of FLORIDA POST OFFICE BOX 9232
TREASURE ISLAND FLORIDA 33740 , AND to Thaddeus
Computing, Inc. CORPORATION IOWA 110 North Court Fairfield IOWA 52556.
Microsoft apparently does not have the same need to protect the PocketPC name.
Most of us heard about the MyPalm.com incident that went down last year.
First Known "Palm" trademark Dispute
In November 2000, Dominic Hulewicz - the registered owner of the domain MyPalm.com received a letter from Palm Inc.'s legal team that included this message:
"Accordingly, we must insist that your company immediately transfer registration of the mypalm.com domain name to Palm, Inc. In order to avoid a legal dispute, we request that you immediately confirm your agreement to transfer the mypalm.com domain name to our client. Our client regards this as a serious and urgent matter, and therefore requests your reply by November 29, 2000."
At the time, Dominic stated on his site, "I am a long term loyal Palm customer and use the domain name as my email address so I can keep in touch on the move using my PDA and GSM mobile phone. I have been using my domain name in this way for nearly a year. I have never attempted to sell my name and although I have received several unsolicited offers for it, on every occasion I made it very clear that I have no wish to sell and politely refused all offers. I have even met with Palm Inc. staff at trade shows and parties where they found it amusing that I am so into my PDA and have such a great email address for it. On no occasion during this period has Palm Inc ever contacted me to voice their concerns at my use of the mypalm.com domain name."
He continued on another site with these comments:
"I am the owner of mypalm.com. I take great exception to you labeling me a cybersquatter. As it says on the web site, I readily admit that I do not use the web site. I don't really have anything to put up there, so I am not making
excuses for that. What I can't believe is that somehow the world now insists that the only use for a domain name is for a web site. I have been using the Internet for over ten years, some time before the WWW was invented ! Why should I have to have some clever web site when all I really use it for is email ? As I have always stated, I am quite happy to direct users who come to my site to the official Palm Inc site instead. All I want to do is keep my domain name for email, as I have been using it as my address for nearly a year... My main reason for being angry is the way they went about their business. Had they given me the courtesy of a friendly chat before slapping a Cease&Desist on me then I am quite sure that none of this would ever had been an issue. After all I was a happy Palm user up until now and probably would not have minded helping them out. What
these corporations need to remember is that we are all human beings and deserve to be treated as such."
Dominic surrendered the domain with little details concerning the transfer, other than the fact that he got to keep his email address usage. If you attempt to visit http://www.mypalm.com it redirects you to http://www.palm.com/mypalm.html . This
page explains that:
The URL "http://www.mypalm.com" is
not a valid Palm, Inc. URL.
You are probably looking for the following URL:
http://my.palm.com/.
You can also visit one of our other sites:
More information and Palm user feedback concerning the MyPalm situation can be found here:
Palm Infocenter's story and
PDABuzz's Forum.
Now this situation was different from the two most recent sites. Palm Inc. was introducing a service that they wanted to call MyPalm. The MyPalm domain owner was not using the site for promotion of the Palm technology. he simply used it for email purposes. The next two incidents involve sites that clearly represent free promotion for Palm Inc., their products, their hardware and use of the Palm OS. Palm Inc. does not have an interest in the newest domain names for other uses.
New Kid on the Chopping Block
Jen Edwards announced this on Wednesday August 22, 2001:
"Hello everyone!! I have a very special announcement to make. Some of you already know me through my presence on the various Palm OS mailing lists, and as "Palm Goddess" and Palm OS Editor over at Brighthand. I enjoy writing about handheld technology so much that I have just launched my own site, http://www.palmgoddess.com. I have an exclusive interview with Iain Barclay, of BugMe! fame, in which we talk about a new feature being announced later today. You'll also find some news items as well as links to all of my previous web articles. I hope that you will all take a look and visit often- I plan to have new content on as close to a daily basis as I can manage, and I also have several surprises in store. This is my way of trying to give a little back to the community that has so strongly supported me over the last couple of years. Enjoy!"
Within a day or so this message came out:
"...it's all over, and I just wanted
to let you know that the address has changed-- please visit me at
http://www.pocketgoddess.com and change your bookmarks if necessary. I hope that you enjoy the site just as much at its new home. Thank you for your support!"
What started it was an email from Palm Inc.'s Legal Department informing her that the domain she had chosen violated their trademark policy.
I was not aware that Palm was causing the ruckus with Jen Edwards' domain name -
http://www.PalmGoddess.com. I knew there was an issue with
her domain choice, I just didn't know it involved Palm. Jen has already switched her site's name to http://www.PocketGoddess.com. This was a new site, and thus Jen did not have a lot invested in the name. I am sure she did not enjoy the stress and grief that came with Palm's decision or her reluctant, yet willing decision to change the name.
PalmGuru.com was Contacted
Is Jim's number is up at PalmGuru.com?
Here is what Jim stated:
"On August 1, 2001 at 4pm I was blind-sided with a pleasantly written notice from Palm, Inc.'s Senior Trademark Counsel that the PalmGuru.Com is violating Palm's trademark by including "palm"
in the domain name and proposed three options:
1) license the use of "Palm" and continue using it in our domain name as www.palmosguru.com,
2) reference "Palm OS" as an extension from an alternate domain name that does not contain "palm"
such as http://www.mobilethoughts.com/PalmOS, or
3) change the palmguru.com to a name that does not include "Palm" as part of it.
As many of you are aware dozens of Palm OS related websites and developers, like the PalmGuru.Com, have been using the word "Palm" as part of their name since at least 1999 without knowing that Palm, Inc. would rather they not use it if the content provider is not interested in complying with their licensing terms. When
I discovered this I was dismayed and disappointed because sites like the
PalmGuru.Com, PalmStation, PalmGodess, PalmInfoCenter.Com, and PalmGear.Com are
essential contributors to building, promoting and cultivating the Palm OS brand
on the Internet.
I agree and disagree with Palm, Inc.'s sudden interest in "protecting" their
brand. They do have a legal right to enforce their trademark, but I am perplexed
on why they have decided after not enforcing many Palm OS websites that have
been using the word "Palm" in their software and domain names for the past three
years that it is now necessary to actively enforce their trademark on those
sites and software developers. In addition I question the motives and criteria
that Palm, Inc. is using to select which domains they feel are now infringing on
their name. What criterion discriminates between these sites and makes popular
online resources like PalmGuru.Com and PalmGear.Com targets?
This brings me to why the PalmGuru.Com will become PocketAnywhere.Com within the
next 30 days. I simply disagree with Palm, Inc.'s decision to selectively
enforce trademarks on Internet resources that support, sell, innovate, and
ultimately help contribute to the overall success of the Palm OS platform. I
think Palm, Inc. should be worrying more about the direction of the Palm OS and
what Microsoft is doing with their revamped Pocket PC OS to woo current Palm OS
users then which websites are promoting the Palm OS platform without licensing
their name, or changing it to include "PalmOS".
Perhaps this is just another circumstance where Palm, Inc. believes they are the
market; contrary to the fact that the consumer creates the market through their
purchasing choice, therefore maybe Palm, Inc. should start focusing on its the
people that make Palm OS platform popular; the consumer.
I appreciate your support while providing reviews on the Palm OS as the
PalmGuru.Com and will continue to appreciate your support as I continue write
reviews under the name, PocketAnywhere.Com, with a new view that I hope you too
will come to adopt and enjoy as I have."
We put a lot of sweat and blood (with little reward) to keep the Palm Economy growing. I just hope Palm Inc. does not kill their market share with this mess. Microsoft sent an invitation to approximately 30 web site owners that ran site
celebrating the use of Palm technology. The event was blown into a scandal by ZDnet in this story:
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2642632,00.html. ZDnet did a follow-up story to help quiet the storm and help set the record straight:
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/comment/0,5859,2643379,00.html.
Here are some of the attendee's thoughts about the conference according to a story from PDABuzz.com:
Joel (PDA
Geek): I thought that I was going to be completely under whelmed.
Previously, I had played with a number of Pocket PCs that were slow to respond
and involved far too many clicks to get things done. In addition, I really
didn't believe in spending a considerable amount of money for the addition of an
MP3 player.
Wes (PDA Buzz): With my previous
experience with the Jornada 545 and Compaq iPaq, I came into the Pocket PC,
Wireless, and Beyond conference expecting to hear much of the same information I
had come to learn on my own since April. Not that this would be bad, it's good
to have interesting and useful information reinforced occasionally. And who
knows, maybe I'd learn something new and exciting while I was there.
Calvin (Calvin's
PGHQ FAQ): I had tried one of the original Windows CE machines, and I still
had a bad taste in my mouth from that experience. I had heard that the new
Pocket PC handhelds had fixed things, but had my doubts. But, ace my Wallet? < and promising to impress us, my curiosity was piqued.
Eric (smaller.com): I
had seen some pretty neat stuff from Ethan and Charlie, the CE experts here at
smaller.com, but every time I had picked up one of their CE units, I had a
pretty bad user experience. Lately I've been bored with Palm, so I was pretty
open minded, but MS still had some work to do to convince me they have a
worthwhile product.
Hal (Palmstation):
Admittedly, most of my experience with PocketPC has been with the misused-to-heck display units on the shelves at electronic stores, so my impression going into this was that the PocketPC was completely unintuitive, and more hassle than it's worth.
Tim (PDA Life)
I was intrigued with the invitation to Seattle to be shown the Pocket PC. I had seen the Win CE devices in the past but was never formally shown their abilities. Reading the hardware reviews, I felt that the devices may have some potential but was still unsure that the software was actually useable. This was an opportunity for me to see it first hand, from the actual people who designed
the devices.
We collectively have sold more Palm handhelds than Palm Inc. has and have spread the gospel of these units across the globe. If Microsoft makes another bid at converting the PalmOS fan sites to PocketPC fan sites, with the lure of free products and fancy trips, he may be successful this time.
Would I be next on the List?
I contacted Jason Firth who acknowledged that
Palm Inc. was developing a position regarding unauthorized use of its trademark. He also indicated that they are quite aware of the attention this issue is raising. "We understand that some of our actions were made too quickly", he explained. "We are trying to sort this issue out as quickly as possible", he continued. "We know that your sites have helped to grow our platform and we appreciate your support." The issue is this. When the PalmOS platform was a part of 3Com or US Robotics, it ran as an internal entity. If the PalmOS platform was having issues (good or bad) , it did not directly affect 3Com or US Robotics. If the PalmOS platform was doing bad, people didn't say that 3Com was doing bad. Does that make sense?
Because Palm Inc.'s "company name", "hardware", and "Operating System (OS)" are referred to as "Palm", it causes certain issues to arise. This is even more complicated with the fact that Palm licenses its OS to other companies. If Sony made a "Palm" product that was totally useless (not true, but consider it for this example). People would complain, that "the Palm sucks" or that "the Palm is useless". Their statements may be true of that particular Palm device, but not necessarily of Palm "the company" or even Palm "the hardware" (that Palm Inc. produces).
I hope that you are still with me on this.
If the PocketPC (hardware or software) sucks, this is not a direct reflection of Microsoft Corporation. People would still like Microsoft (yes, there are some), because not everyone relates Microsoft to PocketPC, or even Win CE. They may continue to like the Microsoft Office suite, they may continue to be fired up about the X-BOX game console. Microsoft does not make a PocketPC handheld device. Palm does not have
this luxury of separation. Their company is called Palm, their OS is called Palm, and their hardware is called a Palm. If there is bad press, the price of their PALM stock may suffer. Microsoft's success or perceived success does not depend on the success (or perceived success) of the PocketPC platform.
The consumer may associate anything with the Palm name as part of Palm Inc., including websites that bear the name Palm in it. In every barrel, there can be a bad apple. It is a big job for Palm to protect its name. Palm Inc. does not want "Palm" to be used so much (and by everyone) so that they lose their brand name. They don't want to be the next Aspirin or Escalator, both of which originally was a brand name. So Palm
Inc. is trying to protect their name. They made some quick decisions. They are rethinking their strategy. Jason indicated that I should not "take any steps to change my site's identity, unless I am contacted directly by someone from the Palm Inc. Legal Department". He did ask for my thoughts about changing my site to http://www.palmosloyal.com . I don't think that it has the same effect.
"We regret some of the decisions that we made and we are looking into ways to correct it." It is a balancing act to "protect the Palm name" and to allow free expression and free promotion of the Palm platform. He stated that Palm Inc.
does not want to hurt their faithful supporters, yet they do not want their name
and product to suffer either.
He also indicated that Jen Edwards was told not to take any action towards a domain name change yet. Jen confirmed this statement, "I decided to change the name and not fight ... the letter was rather strongly worded."
Well I wish everyone the best of luck. Keep the sites alive and the news flowing, in spite of this on-going drama.
Palm is very interested in hearing your opinions on the matter. Requests concerning Palm Inc.'s trademarks should be directed to: Jason
Firth of Palm, Inc.(408) 878-4000 or
trademarks@corp.palm.com .
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Re: Palm Trademark position effects Loyal Supporters (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Friday, September 14 @ 11:34:37 PDT
Personally I would bin my "palmOS" device and buy the inferior CE devices just to show the contempt for such a shoddy way Palm are treating their loyal followers - Every day I am amazed by the arrogance of Corporates towards their supposed "customers"
Re: Palm Trademark position effects Loyal Supporters (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Saturday, September 15 @ 11:06:36 PDT
Do they know at Palm that Palm is also the brandname of a Belgian beer that has existed since 1747.
Check out the website www.palm.be
Re: Palm Trademark position effects Loyal Supporters (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Sunday, September 16 @ 16:46:53 PDT
See http://www.cewindows.net/commentary/trademarks.htm as a comparison of the differences between Palm and Microsoft in resolving trademark disputes.
Chris De Herrera
http://www.cewindows.net
Re: Palm Trademark position effects Loyal Supporters (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Sunday, September 30 @ 09:46:06 PDT
Actually, back in 1998, Palm had to defend it's name against Microsoft:
If Palm stops defending it trademarks now, it opens the door again for Microsoft to steal the name. It's an unfortunate trap to be in -- Palm must tread lightly and hope its loyal supporters will understand.
Either that, or maybe Palm should just give up the name and try to get back "PalmPilot." But that's another story.
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