Dell wanted to register the term for remote computing services and hardware that it offered under the brand 'Cloud Computing Solution'.
Cloud computing is one of the many terms used to describe remote computing. Others include application service provider, software on demand, software as a service, utility computing, remote computing and web services.
Dell's application reached a relatively late stage, but earlier this month following the outcry the USPTO decided to re-examine the trade mark application. It has now been rejected because the term has been deemed to be just a description of the services offered by Dell and because it was deemed to be a generic term.
"Registration is refused because the applied-for mark merely describes a feature and characteristic of applicant’s services," said the USPTO's letter to Dell. "A mark is merely descriptive if it describes an ingredient, quality, characteristic, function, feature, purpose or use of the specified services."
The USPTO said that the term cloud computing is in general use in the computer industry which refers to remote computing applications.
"Computing 'in the cloud' may refer to a company’s own network, but often refers to the Internet and the use of web browser-based or rich client applications," said its letter to Dell. "It implies a trend toward network computing, which was embodied in the “network computer” of the late 1990s."
The USPTO said that the term was "merely descriptive" and therefore not appropriate for trade mark registration "because the average prospective purchaser of the services, when encountering the mark in connection with the services, would immediately perceive a feature of the services".
It also said that the term was generic. "In addition to being merely descriptive, the applied-for mark appears to be generic in connection with the identified services and, therefore, incapable of functioning as a source-identifier for applicant’s services," said the USPTO.
Dell's March 2007 application to register the term as a trade mark was in relation to "design of computer hardware for use in data centers and mega-scale computing environments for others; customization of computer hardware for use in data centers and mega-scale computing environments for others".
