Hacker News Reader

A trademark is different from a software patent. A trademark addresses specific product branding in a specific market; a software patent -- at least the ones in question -- address a generic process that's not limited to a specific market. Consider the trademark on the Wikipedia name versus a (hypothetical) software patent on "a method for storing and displaying user-generated content."

View on HN

Ok. If i want to start a cloud server company, can i use the generic word Cloud Server? if i do, will Rackspace sue me? Even if they are different things, seems like they reach the same outcome.

INAL, but my understanding is that you can use a generic phrase like "cloud servers", where both "cloud" and "servers" have pre-established meanings in the space, as long as you don't use the name for a product competing in the same space. E.g., you could call a service providing base images for clouds "Image Marketplace," but not "AWS Marketplace".

Reply on news.ycombinator.com