The term cloud computing has become a synonym for remote computing, the use of servers on the internet to do the processing work in a job or to host software applications and data.
Dell faced an outcry when it became known that it had applied to trade mark the term. It made the application in 2007 and launched its Cloud Computing Solution, a set of hardware and services which were designed to offer customers remote computing.
Dell told reporters that the trade mark would not give it exclusive use of the term cloud computing and that the application was only designed to protect its products.
In March 2007 Dell made its application for the term 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".
A participant in an online group discussing cloud computing found out about the application and publicised it, following which Dell has faced criticism about filing a trade mark application for a term which many see as generic.
Lindsey Wrenn, a trade mark law specialist at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW, said that even if successful, Dell's rights over the general term cloud computing would be limited.
"In trade mark law there is a general preclusion against the grant of monopoly rights in descriptive or generic terms which might be required by other traders on the basis that such terms cannot denote exclusively the origin of a single business," she said.
"Even if Dell were to argue that their use is not directly descriptive, i.e. it is used for a different type of service, they may be able to secure a suitably limited registration but would only be able to enforce it in this narrow field and would not be able to stop others from using the term cloud computing in a descriptive sense," she said.
"Also, trade mark registration rights are limited to the extent that it is not an infringement if another party uses the mark in a descriptive sense to genuinely describe their own goods or services," said Wrenn.
Cloud computing is a name for the use of remote machines to complete a job. The IT industry has promoted the use of networks of powerful computers for particular tasks for some time under a variety of names.
These names have included: application service provider, software on demand, software as a service, utility computing, remote computing and web services, as well as cloud computing.
"A US application was filed back in May 1997 for cloud computing in the name of NetCentric Corporation, which was abandoned," said Wrenn. "It may be that the term was not considered distinctive even 10 years ago. As a result, I doubt whether the Dell application will go forward to registration but no doubt if it does someone will try to invalidate it is ever enforced."
