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Microsoft Windows trademarks?
I'm a tad light on what Microsoft actually has trademarked with regard to Windows. It is my understanding that a generic or dictionary word cannot be trademarked. Since Window(s) is a generic term referring to a GUI visual element used to contain other GUI elements in a separate environment. How can they possibly trademark it? I have heard that it is in fact "Microsoft Windows" that is trademarked, but that makes no sense either, seeing as "Microsoft" alone will already be a trademark, it would be superfluous to trademark "Microsoft Windows". On all windows logos I see the TM above the word Windows, indicating that it is that word alone that is trademarked. So I wonder just how they managed to get it trademarked in the first place, as it should have been rejected, and has anyone ever challenged it?
Joel, I disagree that Window or Windows is not a generic operating system term. The concept of a Window in a GUI environment was created well before Microsoft was even writing the first version of Windows. Any form of GUI is mostly a collection of windows, so any operating system should have the right to call itself Windows.
For an analogy, try this.
A garden (operating system) contains mainly grass (windows), so a garden center selling gardens (company selling operating systems) calls its specific product (which is a full garden) "Grass" ("Windows"). They should not be able to trademark the term Grass (Windows).
I know garden centers don't actually sell gardens per se, it's just an example.
Dakota, it was not Microsoft who came up with the concept of a Window in a GUI environment at all. That is totally wrong.
2 Answers
- JoelKatzLv 71 decade agoFavorite Answer
"Windows" is trademarked. Your understanding that a dictionary word cannot be trademarked is incorrect. A generic word cannot be trademarked, but "windows" is only a generic word for those glass things you look through. It's not a generic word for an operating system.
Some examples of common dictionary words that are also well-known trademarks:
Apple
Sun
Target
Caterpillar
Intel
- 1 decade ago
Who do you think was the first company to coin the word "window" as in a GUI element. it was Microsoft. and it being the name of a product allows it to be trademarked. and apple is trademarked and it is a dictionary word. but the reason they can be trademarked is because they are names and intellectual property to the company's. hope you can under stand alright ~ dakota
