Apple's "Thunderbolt" Trademark Approved but not Registered
Earlier this month Apple was granted another Thunderbolt related patent. Wikipedia notes that Thunderbolt (code named light Peak) was co-developed by Apple and Intel and made public in 2011. Apple applied for the Thunderbolt trademark shortly thereafter and came close to getting it registered. In fact in 2012 they were 30 days away from approval before running into problems and since then Apple has been trying repeatedly to get it registered with no success. In fact the US Patent and Trademark granted Apple their fourth approval extension on April 29, 2014. As Apple continues their trademark efforts in the US, a new positive development is occurring with Thunderbolt in Canada.
The Canadian Intellectual Property Office Approves Thunderbolt Trademark
As noted in Apple's Thunderbolt Application record, the "Action Information" part of their file shows that the examiner has already approved the trademark on June 12, 2014. It has now gone into the "Advertised" stage.
More specifically the trademark has been entered into the "Trademark Journal" as of July 2, 2014 as noted below. If there's no opposition, the trademark will become a Registered Trademark of Apple's in September.
Will Apple succeed in securing the Thunderbolt trademark this time around? Only time will tell, as Apple has been down this road before and it's never panned out. And while there was once a one-sided PR-like story published back in 2011 about Intel owning the trademark and that Apple would transfer the trademark rights over to them, Apple has never publicly supported or backed such claims.
In fact, the tension between these two companies is well known. We more recently posted a report in June titled "Intel Obsessed about Challenging Apple Product Thinness." Intel's Kirk Skaugen, GM of their PC Client Group, made a dramatic comparison of their new Core M motherboard compared to Apple's MacBook Air.
Apple's iPad was released back in 2010 and its effect on the PC market almost brought Intel crashing down and they've been struggling ever since. And though they just reported a positive Quarter, the fact remains that Apple's iPad took Intel by surprise and they've been behind ARM in the mobile space ever since. Their current results showed that their mobile and communications group was down 83% year over year.
At the end of the day, we'll keep on top of the developments of this trademark and report on it once again, if it finally gets registered.
Patently Apple presents a basic summary of new trademark filings with their associated graphics for journalistic news purposes as each such trademark is revealed by the U.S. and/or other foreign Patent & Trademark Offices. This category covers a few Industrial Design reports each year while others could be found in our granted patent archives. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any trademark application should be read in its entirety for further details. About Comments: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit comments.
Comments