Emailing "Consulting Firm Trademarks "Green IT""
GreenPages Inc. has been granted a service
mark by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for "Green IT". The application was filed on Oct. 27, 2008, and granted on September 8, 2009. The registration number is 3681732 and the mark has been granted for "information technology consultation services; computer network consultation, design and installation services; computer software development, design and installation services."
I don't know much about this company. It appears to be an IT consulting firm based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The
website indicates the company was founded in 1992 and is privately held. They do a lot of work in solutions delivery, especially virtualization. And they're
hiring.
So what does it mean that Green IT is now trademarked? Well, for the time being not very much. You can still use those words to describe the movement generally to make computer equipment more environmentally friendly. There's potential for mischief here though. The trademark registration means that GreenPages wants that phrase to become exclusively associated with it when it comes to selling a product or service. That means using "green IT solution" will become a no-no for any other company. I'm not sure GreenPages will ultimately succeed in this endeavor as it seems to me that "Green IT" is already pretty much used by everyone (just like "happy meal" or "fast food"), and I'm not exactly thrilled that yet another company is trying to dominate a common phrase (I wasn't happy about Donald Trump registering "You're Fired" either). It will be very interesting to see how this develops.