Developer claims he invented
it
Illinois developer Erich Specht, sued Google and some 47 other
companies in the Open Handset Alliance for using his trademark.
Specht claims
he has the rights to the Android name which denotes Google's version of Linux
that adorns their handsets. Specht has registered the trademark in 2000 and
two years later, the US Patent and Trademark Office awarded the trademark to
Android Data, Specht's company.
According to the USPTO, no application would
be granted the exclusive right to use the term data, therefore making "android"
that dominant word and the trademark. However Android Data never amounted to
anything and was dissolved in 2004.
Specht claims that he was not aware that
Android was software and thought it was something to do with mobile
hardware. Not surprisingly Google said that the case has no merit and it will
defend against it. It would not surprise us, however, if it just gave him some
money to go away and not tell us about it.