Dropbox trademark application being challenged (filesanywhere) by 3 rivals. | Hacker News Reader

Dropbox trademark application being challenged (filesanywhere) by 3 rivals.

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11 pointsjccodez9 comments

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?

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.

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?

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.

Please note, I am not taking a position on who is right or wrong, just reporting what I read. Thanks.

Talking about generic names, the plaintiff in this case is "Office Corporation". Oh, the irony.

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

http://goo.gl/imygS

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

http://web.archive.org/web/20040804025347/http://filesanywhe...

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.

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