Android Trademark

Google’s mobile operating system Android is now out of the bag. And Google acquired the mobile company Android, which supplied the name, back in 2005. Though it’s registered a trademark on the name Android only days before the announcement of the Open Handset Alliance and Android. The trademark covers hardware and software, though the announcement only covered the open source software.

On the conference call yesterday, Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt attempted to head off questions of a so called G-Phone by stating “this is not an announcement for the G-Phone, we are hoping that this will power thousands of phones,” in his opening remarks. That didn’t stop follow-up questions. Those questions were addressed. “Google does not pre-announce anything. If you were to build a G-Phone, this would be the perfect platform,” said Schmidt. He also said “we don’t want to foreclose on announcements in the future.” With the trademark covering hardware and software, it provides a chance there could be a phone called G some day.