Microsoft's Ownership of Trademark in Doubt

First "Windows," now "Excel." New York City-based software company Savvysoft says MicrosoftRelevant Products/Services from Microsoft has demanded that it drop the name Excel from its TurboExcel product, which makes Microsoft's Excel portable to other systems like Linux. Trouble is, Microsoft does not yet own the trademark to the name "Excel."

The case sounds similar to Microsoft's gaffe earlier this year over its "Windows" trademark. What began with the usual cease-and-desist letter sent to an upstart firm, resulted with egg on Microsoft's face over the management of its trademarks. The world's largest software maker ended up offering a settlement.

Stop Linux

Savvysoft unveiled its TurboExcel product in June of this year. It is designed to speed up Microsoft's Excel, but more importantly it allows users to migrate Excel to other operating systems, such as Linux. "We received a letter from Microsoft inviting us to become one of their partners," said Savvysoft founder Rich Tanenbaum. "But what was weird is that other partners, who I expect aren't being threatened with trademark lawsuits, also have the name Excel in their product names," he told NewsFactor.

News source: NewsFactor