Federal Court Gives Special Treatment to Windows®
Welsh & Katz, Ltd. is an IP firm that “offers a variety of intellectual property services.”
I recently stumbled upon this client advisory published by the firm. It’s titled Client Advisory: Microsoft v. AT&T Supreme Court Decision.
The first thing that caught my eye was that — in all but one instance — the firm applied the registered trademark symbol to Windows. I wondered why. The symbol isn’t applied to Microsoft or to A T & T, even though those are registered trademarks that appear in the alert. Why bother to apply it to Windows?
Then I looked at this ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Like the client advisory from Welsh & Katz, the ruling also applies the registered trademark symbol to Windows, but not to Microsoft or to A T & T.
Now, why would a federal court apply the registered trademark symbol to Windows in a ruling?
16 July 2007 at 16:43
Thorne: Use of trademark symbols is an interesting issue. My take on it for purposes of contract drafting is at http://adamsdrafting.com/system/2006/06/15/referring-to-trademarks/. Ken
17 July 2007 at 6:32
I still don’t understand why a law firm or a federal court would apply the registered mark symbol to Windows.
It suggests the law firm (an IP firm) doesn’t understand trademarks so well, especially as they don’t always use it as a proper adjective.
The court seems to be giving some undue deference to one party.