Oops: Google Denied Trademark on Android Nexus One
It's been a rough day for Google's Android phone, the Nexus One. First we learned this morning that initial sales have been far weaker than the iPhone saw when it first came out of the gate. Now it's being reported that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has rejected its application for a trademark on the name Nexus One.
The name "Nexus One" was ruled too close to Portland, Oregon based Integra Telecom's own registered trademark for its Nexus fixed bandwidth integrated voice and internet T1 product.
Mike Rogoway, of Portland's The Oregonian newspaper, got the following statement from Integra:
"We appreciate that the PTO is protecting our trademark rights. Integra has over $60 Million in annual revenue associated with our Nexus brand and it represents millions of new revenue for the company each year. Google hasn't contacted us since the PTO issued its objection but we hope we can work together to achieve our respective business goals."
Does that mean Google will rename the Nexus One, or that it will end up paying the trademark holder for the privilege of using the name? Google just expanded the Nexus One onto the AT&T network today.
Either way, we wouldn't be surprised if the hunt for a new name is already on. What would you suggest, readers?
It's tempting to say this is another example of the Patent and Trademark Office moving too slow, but note that Integra was granted its trademark in December 2008. The Nexus One was just release January 5, 2010.
Meanwhile, the open Android operating system marches on. XML co-creator Tim Bray announced this weekend that he has joined Google to work on Android. He called the iPhone in a blog post "a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the apps serve at the landlord's pleasure and fear his anger."
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They should call it the Google Ping. Ad campaign, ping someone, really could take off.
don't feel sorry for google.
Google One sounds good. First phone by Google, hence 'One'.
It just seems that Google has not been having really any good days of late .. what with all of that business in Euro, Facebook nipping at it's heals in traffic numbers and now this ..
gPhone
duh
Actually, I'm surprised you can even trademark words like "Nexus". I guess I need to be careful with my algorithmic compositions - one of the concepts in Harry Partch's music theory is called the "Numerary Nexus". ;-)
Marshall,
I clicked through that link to to the "Nexus One Flopped..." RWW article. Now I realize that today every tech blogger was tasked with creating a catchy headline proclaiming the failure of the Nexus One because of the numbers Flurry released, but I tend to hold RWW in higher regard than "the tech press". That said...
Doesn't anyone remember Andy Rubin saying he hoped to sell 150k N1s in the US? Here is a link, he told Om Malik himself:
http://gigaom.com/2010/01/05/andy-rubin-on-google-phone-android/
That the N1 would sell dramatically fewer units than the iPhone seems so obvious as to not be worth mentioning. I do understand the need to generate page views, though, so perhaps an article about Lady Gaga... :)
I agree that it is silly for "Nexus" to be trademarkable. We don't complain of the PTO "moving too slow". We complain of it allowing random illogical patent/trademark requests to go through.
Google will surely claim that theirs is a phone and not a service provision and on top of that the trademark is unlikely to be held in the UK as well, so we could see it named the Nexus One over here and something entirely different in the US.
it seems almost every popular cell phone has had a name that was either straightforward or cutesy. (e.g. RAZR, iPhone, Droid, BlackBerry...)
maybe they should just officially call it the Google Phone. instead of only using that as the Nexus One's informal name
How about - Goolge OpenTwo
With all the money Google makes and all the products they produce, they should really hire a dedicated trademark attorney. The Nexus mark was registered in 12/2008 (http://bit.ly/9lg01k) and Google sent in their application for the mark on 12/2009. A simple trademark search on the PTO website would have shown that the name was already taken. It took the PTO 3 months to turn around their initial refusal. I don't consider 3 months to be "moving too slow". Note that patents do take considerably longer to process, but patents and trademarks are completely different beasts. Granted, Nexus is not a great name to trademark anyway, but either is Google. The best trademarks are completely made up names, but Google's marketing department probably wouldn't like that.
Surely any large company with a $£$ marketing campaign would perform proper trademark due diligence?! Depressingly common.
Google Smart?
GSmart?
Ggenius?
Google Genuis?
I suggest Pris
Google has never built slick, consumer friendly products. Can anyone name one?
Not sure why people think they will succeed in mobile UI design. Have you ever used Google Analytics or Adwords? This is their bread and butter and it could not be more user un-friendly.
They really only succeeded at stealing adwords from go2 back in the day. Everything else pails in revenue comparison at the company...
Somehow I just cannot imagine Google being denied anything. I am sure Google will remember that when they rule the world one day.
Lou
www.anon-vpn.net.tc
I agree with @nite, Google One sounds like a good name for their first phone.
Oh, no, Android sales weren't as good as the iphone, despite them doing almost no advertising whatsoever!
I don't feel bad for Google. People will still want the phone and they'll still call it the Nexus One.
Nex one...
Are we really surprised that it didn't fair as well as the iPhone? Usability and all other physical differences between the phones aside, Apple has physical presence in every major US market, where Google only has a virtual presence.
I bet there's gonna be a hitler youtube video about this very soon.
N1
N-one sounds like And 1 looks like none :P
How about.. The Google "Cluster F**k"
The Nexus One is 100X better than the i(censor)Phone by 100 times.. who cares what it is called..
If the Nexus One was available on Verizon I would get one ASAP! But I guess I'll wait for the next best Android phone to arrive for Verizon.
Good.I think the judge made the correct decision - they're both telecommunications products, and Integra has had that product a while.
No surprise the Nexus isn't selling. They should just pull the T-Mobile version off the shelves. It doesn't work $529 well, and it isn't worth paying the monthly price to have an EDGE phone. That can barely connect to the GSM network from indoors.
People aren't buying it because they look in the forums and see that everyone is having massive trouble with them. It looked like they had the issues on the way to being fixed, so I went ahead and bought one. Huge buyers remorse. No 3G (in San Francisco), no support from Google, broken Google Android apps (like Gmail and Voice, Buzz too)
As much as I loved it, I'm going to be hard pressed to buy another HTC or Google product.
Nexus Six instead?
How is "Nexus fixed bandwidth integrated voice and internet T1 product" trademark confusing with "Nexus One"? It is ridiculous the judge will reject the Nexus One trademark.
They could name it Integra like Inegratel the slezoid long distance company!
It's just embarrassing for a company like Google to make such a mistake. I know they will soon recover.
Wait, you can be denied a trademark for being "too close" to something else now? And not even like, an alternate spelling, but adding another word is still too close? That's fucked up.
Wouldn't you think that the intellectual property attorneys representing Google would have searched PTO for duplication/similar names prior to their showtime?
Likelihood of confusion can be tricky, and is something that Google can argue against. LOC can depend upon the opinion of the examining attorney at the USPTO. I would hope that Google's IP attorneys did a search before filing...it's very important to have a thorough search conducted before filing an application! It can save the filer a lot of time, trouble, and money.
Sorry, lifestudent. I searched for ‘Corey Haim’ via the box at the top right before posting mine but it didn’t do a good job of finding anything and I was keen to get the story on the UK homepage as soon as possible. Thanks for adding yours as soon as you heard the news.
As of now we didn't see any sign of changes from google in the name its android phone. I wonder why Google never responded to PTO for the same.
I don't think its a big problem for Google. As you said, they will settle this issue so that we won’t even notice. And btw, there is nothing to “scribble out” on the Nexus One. ( If i am getting you right…)
It's just embarrassing for a company like Google to make such a mistake. I know they will soon recover.
They are looking for new names if you read the article.
GroidOne
gOne
Drougle (The Droid and Google Inspired)
Nexus One title already familiar in gadgets lovers as first Google's Android product. If the name was changed, it will be a big problem for Google as it requires promotion for new title, which of course requires a lot of money
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