The Laptop Company, operator of a web-based shopping platform through its BongoBing website, has filed a request for an extension of time to oppose Microsoft in its efforts to register a trademark for the name “Bing” with the USPTO. Furthermore, The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board has effectively granted the extension request until October 28, 2009.
Here’s what BongoBing CEO and co-founder Raul Pellerano had to say about it:
“We have worked hard and invested significant resources in building our BongoBingTM brand and identity, our website and services, and our corporate identity. We believe it is important for a small company like The Laptop Company to continue to use its trademarks and conduct business without confusion in the marketplace.”
I have a sneaking suspicion that The Laptop Company is doing this because of the almost guaranteed press attention this will be getting, in which case its strategy has already paid off.
Hands up if you think they actually have a case.
(Hat tip to Dave Barner)
MicroSoft, Apple, Macintosh….history repeats again…or will it not this time?? Thanks to internet
Cheers,
Marvin
http://latticepurple.com
What you talkin bout willis?
Chuck Norris. What Willis was talkin’ about.
The little guy sometimes wins, for example Google couldn’t use “Gmail” in the UK.
Hopeful – I wonder how much brand confusion & dilution this would really cause, though. Would someone really be confused if someone else said “Bing it” or “BongoBing” it?
I tried Bing Maps having just taken a course in Google Maps to see what the difference was. I was disappointed to see that when I zeroed in on our house and summer house, the pictures were about 4 years old. It showed our former cars in the driveway and at the summer house showed it under construction and it has been finished for four plus years.
I would think that when marketing a new product, a company like Microsoft would want to put out current information.
T
Microsoft UK has started using “Wave” – see http://www.micr.../wave/home.aspx.
That is because Alli G had that shit on lock
I don’t understand your banter, old chap.
In UK and Germany, Gmail is called Google Mail. That’s y your email address name@gmail.com is same as name@googlemail.com. Many people wouldn’t have noticed this…
From Wikipedia (http://en.wikip....org/wiki/Gmail):
UK
On October 19, 2005 Google voluntarily converted the United Kingdom version of Gmail to Google Mail because of a dispute with the UK company, Independent International Investment Research.
Germany
The German naming issue is due to a trademark dispute between Google and Daniel Giersch. Daniel Giersch owns a company called “G-mail” which provides the service of printing out e-mail from senders and sending the print-out via postal mail to the intended recipients. On January 30, 2007, the EU’s Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market ruled in favor of Giersch.
Google spoofed “offering” the same service in the Gmail Paper April Fool’s Day joke in 2007.
Poland
In February 2007 Google filed legal action against the owners of gmail.pl, a poet group known in full as Grupa Młodych Artystów i Literatów abbreviated GMAiL (literally, “Group of Young Artists and Writers”).
Mainland China
An information-technology company in mainland China named ISM Technologies has owned and operated a web portal from the domain gmail.cn since 2003.
Russian Federation
A Russian free webmail service called gmail.ru owns the “Gmail” trademark in the Russian Federation.
The gmail.ru domain name dates from January 27, 2003.
http://whyisthisevennews.com ?
Classic!
Why do you think your comment is even useful? Because its not.
that is hilarious.
Reminds me of the MSN page background. MY EYES!!!!
Alt-text fail. What’s the payoff?
Got to love websites like this and http://www.something.com
Nice site
atleast you should have added a live visitors count or total visitors count! 
They are doing it for the press or the pay-off. Either way, it’s a shrewd and savvy move.
Seems stupid, while ‘Bing’ is included in the laptop company name BongoBing, there wouldn’t be any confusion amongst anyone interested in this. Maybe some people from the depths of the Amazon would get little confused..
Maybe, but they are both search engines of a sort and with the funding difference, clearly Microsoft could blow Bongobing out of the water – making it virtually impossible for Bongobing to develop their brand.
Microsoft needs any kind of publicity, too. They’ll let this ride for a while.
BongoWho?
BongoDavid
BingGoliath
or MicroBing
or BingHoo
or SoftBing
or BingSoft
or BingZune
or ZuneHoo
Web 2.0 branding sure is hard
But I’m way off topic. Sorry.
Both of them need publicity right now. But thats a good marketing stratergy. http://AppUseful.com
Is MS Bing …
Deceptively Similar ? No.
Likelihood of Confusion in the Marketplace for Goods or Services in the same Classification? No.
Passing Off or Misrepresenting? No.
Polysyllabic? No.
Phonetically Similar? Yes – arguably, emphasis on “Bongo”
Attempt to continue the dispute in order to force a Multinational Company to Settle Litigation with a Substaintial Payout? Yes.
Likelihood of the other 197 “Bing” marks following suite if its successful ? Strong.
Chances of MS Loosing? Small, IMHO, in this instance.
Google’s search with “My Location” search engine app appears to conflict with the “MyLocator” trademark.
in this case if i called my trademarked search engine product company dingdong.com and someone else came along and started using dong.com offering the same services i would say it could confuse users.
FYI: the “register a trademark” link isn’t active.
Ah session lost, removed the link (thx)
no chance for bongo bing=) it’s too much money invested in bing, and i like bing much more than some computer company. By the way is a good pr for bongobing=)
I like their website. It is so … different
Wow, what a name. Hard to take seriously. Though at least most people can spell it, which is more than you can say for many web startup names…
They have a case. So does the BaddaBing Bar in Sarasota. I am going there to watch the rugby tomorrow, and I don’t want to be confused by this “Bing” search engine stuff.
who names their company that? =\
be easy…. they may have hit lotto with this one. answer to your question? the same people that name their company bing.
I like http://en.wikip.../wiki/Bada_Bing most of those two.
Hey, I got it!
Use xxxBingxxx.com or even iTzBing.com!
That’s the trend now when you can’t find an original name.
Personally I think this case might get somewhere in Court. And if it doesnt, we’ve always got the wonderful US Appellate Courts to tie up for a few years.
Just like Monster for suing anyone who uses the word monster. Rather silly. Microsoft will probably win. And when the blacklist bongobing from bing, we’ll know who gets the last laugh.
how can you not be confused by Bing when BongoBing is a product search engine as well.
how can you not be confused by Bing when BongoBing is a product search engine as well. this is def confusing to me and unless you are a techie, then the casual online surfer would def be confused between BongoBing and bing.com…
To get the max chance and thus the max payout from Bing, they should change the search button from “Bongo it” to “Bing it”.
I think the next lawyer will target a pigeon for picking up an Apple ™ or Bing ™ cherry and then tweet ™ about it.
I’m not an attorney but if it all somewhat protects them from potential trademark conflicts with Microsoft down the line, then its probably a good move.
so hard for start-ups to battle large companies, think they have a legitimate case – could easily mix up a search engine (for products) – BongoBing with a search engine, or excuse me, decision engine – Bing
Does Bongo Bing even have a trademark to dispute?
I looked up every variation @ the USPTO site and got nothing.
I say hats off to the little guy. I hope they win. Microsoft needs to stop eating the little guys for lunch.
Remember the kid that they sued a few years back because of trademark infringement. It was his name for gods sake. The kids name was Mike Rowe for those of you that don’t remember. He was a teenager that did web development, I think. He setup a website using his domain and what his trade was, software developement. http://www.mikerowesoft.com
Apparently billion dollar companies feel threatened by this and sued him. GG.
i dont understand why microsoft would not have secured the trademark because launching bing. how can big companies be so dumb?
replace ‘because’ with ‘before’!
We had the same trouble with http://www.spirofrog.de/blog and the US music plattform spiralfrog!
Lucky us we are not in the same Business
BongoBing & Babson College are featured in today’s Boston Globe edition (print – Business section & online) for the Summer Ventures incubator program: http://www.bost...dent_start_ups/.
Bongo Bing WILL win! Gotta have the faith!
Bongo Bing WILL win! Gotta have the faith!
I don’t understand your banter, old chap.
I think bongobing is going to win because they have a simple and clear case: they were there first doing business with the name before bing ever showed up, and that’s what matters in the court of law.