Who Owns "The Cloud" -- I Do!

You hear Steve Jobs and Bill Gates talking about "the cloud." You read it in the papers and hear it on the radio. Cloud computing is all the rage. Experts are telling us that we are being stupid if we don't store everything in "the cloud." Of course the cloud is just a metaphor for distributed computing. Instead of storing your data on your computer (where a crash can spoil your whole spring break), you store your stuff online on a server connected to the internet. Pretty smart! But have you wondered who owns the name "The Cloud?" I do! OK, more accurately, the University of Georgia and I do. US Trademark #3028364 issued on December 13, 2005. Let me explain. You know the NMI has been working with mobile media since about 2003. Well a team at the NMI came up with a product that we called "The Cloud" that was designed to distribute information about opportunities (like events, sales, concerts, etc.) available in a community. It worked using both using WiFi (like the Wireless Athens Georgia Zone -- WAGZone -- we created in downtown Athens) and cellphones. It worked so good we got a patent ("Wireless Communication of Context Sensitive Content, Systems Methods and Computer Program Product" US Patent #7,239,871). And since we called it "The Cloud" we registered the trademark. Right now we are exploring the possibility of licensing the name to other Cloud-like companies. But I have a bigger dream. I want Steve (Jobs) and Bill (Gates) to call me on the phone and ask if it is OK for them to keep saying "The Cloud." Of course, I would let them -- with two conditions. One, they would have to call it "UGA's Cloud." And, second, it would cost them a nickle each time they said it. As much as "The Cloud" is getting thrown around, we could solve some of UGA's budget woes! If you have ideas for what we should do with our trademark "The Cloud," let me know.