A little glee out there in the world, as it appears that Microsoft hadn’t gotten ’round to registering “Azure” with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. “According to searches conducted by Computerworld, Microsoft has not applied for a trademark for either ‘Windows Azure’ or ‘Azure Services Platform’ with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.” There aren’t any details, though, as to how Computerworld did its search. If it simply went to TESS and entered “Azure” in the search box, it won’t find registrations that were filed after October 16, 2008. As the USPTO states on its News page:
Last complete paper filing date: 13 Oct, loaded 21 Oct.
Last complete electronic filing date (TEAS): 16 Oct, loaded 22 Oct.
These dates should be used as guides and do not imply that all Trademark applications carrying these filing dates are available in the system as of the load dates. Updates are scheduled to occur Tuesday through Saturday prior to 5:30 AM.
Now, I’m not going to quibble with the notion that Microsoft probably should have already secured trademark registration for Azure before having it hit the market, but I think it speaks to a larger point here: one should not assume that registration does not exist on a mark simply because it isn’t found in TESS. There is a lag, of about a week or two.
