First-Use DateTrips Up DWG Registration

Evan Yares has posted much of the communication between Autodesk (wanting to register DWG as a trademark on the 25th anniversary of AutoCAD's launch) and the US trademark office, which is repeatedly rejecting Autodesk's request.

(I always appreciate it when someone makes the effort to mine arcane government documents; a big thank you to Evan on this one!)

Autodesk went to considerable effort to document a link between DWG and AutoCAD, but the trademark office says, "No, no, and no!" for these reasons:

* DWG is not exclusive to Autodesk; other CAD packages use it, too.
* DWG is the name of a file format, not a product.
* despite a poll conducted on behalf of Autodesk finding that 42% associate DWG exclusively with AutoCAD, it could be they are expressing familiarity with ,dwg (format) and not DWG (name).
* spending lots on marketing a name is not proof of distinctiveness.

But here's the killer: when Autodesk filed its application in April of last year, they made the following assertion (well, mistake, really):

FIRST USE ANYWHERE DATE: At least as early as 11/28/2005

FIRST USE IN COMMERCE DATE: At least as early as 11/28/2005

The trademark examiner pounced on "2005", saying Autodesk was contradicting itself by saying that DWG was associated with AutoCAD since the 1980s. Thus, concludes the examiner, "applicant has not used the DWG as a mark for even two years."

Oops.

I am guessing that the person filling out the application may have put in "today's date", thinking that since DWG goes back to 1982 (or earlier), using a more recent date for "at least as early as" covered the earlier date.

Reading the correspondence posted by Evan gives me the feeling the trademark examiner is annoyed with Autodesk. I still think they deserve DWG as a registered trademark.

Comments

[Randall Newton]

The time for Autodesk to assert its right to DWG as a registered copyright was 20 years ago, and even then the argument would have been rightfully met with resistance. To do it now is to try to shut the barn door after the horse has not only left, but has visited every farm in the valley and sired many young.

[Barry Watson]

I agree with Randall. But in this case Autodesk want to own all the young sired by the unrestrained said horse. Let us have Autodesk write a program that competes on its own merits, not by claiming they own the playing field. Their monopoly is unhealthy and should not be legally protected.