

Dropbox trademark application being challenged (filesanywhere) by 3 rivals. - jccodez
http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Legal/News/2011/07_-_July/Rival_sues_Dropbox_over_rights_to_the_name_and_website/

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glimcat
It is quite generic. I've been calling my network-writeable folder "dropbox"
since before there was a web. I should rename it now because someone wants to
name their company after the colloquial expression for the functionality?

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dpark
To be fair, Dropbox never said (to my knowledge) that Filesanywhere should be
forced to stop using the term. Filesanywhere instead is demanding that Dropbox
stop using the term, and that for some bizarre reason Filesanwhere should own
the domain.

I think the term is fairly generic, but so are a lot of trademarks up until
the point they become trademarks. I'm not sure how the courts and PTO will
settle this one.

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glimcat
Yeah, it's a game of silly buggers all around. At least it's not on the level
of the "app store" nonsense.

It's also hard not to develop a rather cynical attitude towards the USPTO
given the unending tide of negative press swirling around it. The system is
infamously broken. What are companies supposed to do? Not file applications?
Not try to defend a granted trademark because it's generic, only to have
someone turn that against them? Is it the company being overly grasping or
trying to do their due diligence in a high-stakes game of CYA?

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dpark
I feel like trademarks aren't quite as screwed up. Trademarking colors is
completely broken, but I don't think everything is. I think "Dropbox" is a
reasonable name. While it's obviously been used in the past, it was not widely
used, and it has not been used as a _brand_. I think it's reasonable to allow
a company to use it. I also think that anyone who previously used the term
should be allowed to continue to use the term indefinitely (but not as
branding).

I think Filesanywhere is outright trolling, as they never tried to establish
the term as a brand. They have a legitimate claim to use the term, and to
dispute Dropbox's claim, but not a legitimate claim to the domain. The domain
existed 4 years before the Filesanywhere product launched.

Patents on the other hand are appearing more and more broken. 99% of software
patents are crap, and probably 100% of "business method" patents are.

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jccodez
Interesting search shows how filesanywhere uses the name "Dropbox":

<http://goo.gl/imygS>

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dpark
Looks like they've been using the term publicly since at least August of 2004.

[http://web.archive.org/web/20040804025347/http://filesanywhe...](http://web.archive.org/web/20040804025347/http://filesanywhere.com/)

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almightygod
I seriously doubt filesanywhere was unaware of drobox for the last 2 years. My
guess is they were waiting for the opportune time to cash in.

