PenPoint, PenPoint. Who’s Got the Pen-Point?

The world’s not pen-centric yet

When Interactive Computer Products Inc. in Laguna Hills, California decided to introduce their new light pen for Sun SPARCstations running under SunOS in SunView, Open Windows, and X Window, the term “PenPoint” seemed like the ideal moniker. The company, which has been in the light pen, bar code, and related input device market for a number of years, went ahead and developed a marketing plan for the $698 device, printed promotional brochures (that included the TM trademark symbol on the word PenPoint), and dropped them into the mail. And that’s how we came across the product.

When we received the brochure, we immediately called Interactive president Jim Bearden who expressed surprise that another product called PenPoint might be on the market. He was unaware of Go Corp., its PenPoint operating system (which also sports a TM), and the rapidly emerging pen-based computing arena in general. Bearden admitted that he hadn’t officially filed for a trademark on PenPoint, nor even undertaken a trademark search. He added that he certainly wasn’t out to infringe on any other company’s trademark and would immediately take steps to rectify the situation.

We also contacted Go Corp. whose press relation office was unaware of Interactive’s product. The did state, however, that Go had purchased the previously trademarked rights to the name “PenPoint” in 1988. Upon further investigation, however, it turned out that Go’s legal department had apparently heard about the Interactive light pen about the same time we did and had just notified Interactive of the Go trademark. That’s the situation as it stands now. We assume from what Mr. Bearden told us that his company will likely rename the light pen, with hopefully no harm done. We’ll follow the story in any event.