Well after over 2 years (and a visit to MS and interaction with many many employees), Microsoft’s legal department just decided that Tablet Enhancements for Outlook is a violation of their trademark. I’m no expert in trademark law, but I’m sure they have grounds for what they’re asking, but it’s retarded.
Why? Because it’s not like I’m calling it “Outlook Tablet Edition” or something like that. The name is very descriptive of the fact that it is an add on for a specific Microsoft product. In fact, the descriptiveness of the name has probably been a key factor in how popular it has become.
Furthermore, it is not in competition with anything Microsoft is doing and in fact it improves upon a product which has neglected Tablet PC users for 3 years.
So anyway I have no ability to fight this and I’d probably lose anyway so it’s time to think of a new name. Some suggestions I’m making are:
- Tablet Enhancements for Bullies
- Tablet Enhancements for Thunderbird
- Tablet Enhancements for iCal
- Tablet Enhancements for your favorite personal information manager that Microsoft makes (oh wait, can’t use that trademark either)
No matter the result, less copies of TEO will be downloaded. I’m glad someone is making $300/hour to work on this case.