iGuide and iSlate ? Two Potential Name Candidates for an Apple Tablet?

Apple’s apparent filing for the “iSlate” trademark and purchase of the iSlate.com domain has some convinced that iSlate will be the official name of Apple’s rumored touchscreen tablet. Some more digging around led to the discovery of a trademark application for “iGuide,” which bears striking similarities to the iSlate application. The theory, then, is iGuide could be another name candidate for an Apple tablet.

MacRumors, who originally reported evidence that Apple purchased iSlate.com, found that the iGuide trademark application was signed by Apple’s senior trademark specialist Regina Porter, who was also the signer of the the iSlate paperwork. The iGuide application describes features that could be part of a general-purpose gadget:

Computer hardware and computer software for accessing, browsing, searching, recording, organizing, storing, transmitting, receiving, manipulating, streaming, reproducing, playing, and reviewing audio, video, games, music, television, movies, photographs, and other multimedia content

Also, a detail perhaps overlooked by MacRumors ? the address of the listed applicant, iGuide Media LLC, shares the same address as the applicant listed for iSlate, Slate Computing LLC: “1209 Orange Street, Wilmington DELAWARE.” That address is linked to Corporation Trust, an agency that assists corporations in expediting legal services and other requests. The implication, then, is Apple hired Corporation Trust to file for the iSlate and iGuide trademarks. Corporation Trust presumably set up accounts as “iGuide Media LLC” and “Slate Computing LLC” for filing their respective trademarks.

Wired.com consulted trademark experts to help assess the iSlate trademark application. They declined to speculate on Apple’s plans, but based on the legal expertise they provided, Wired.com finds it inconclusive that a future Apple product will carry either the name iSlate or iGuide.

Jane Wald, chair of the trademark practice group at Irell and Manella, noted to Wired.com that the iSlate trademark has not been registered in the United States; it’s only been filed. In U.S. trademark law, a company can only win registration of a mark once it provides sufficient evidence it is going to sell the product. That means “iSlate” is not a name set in stone; it could be abandoned.

Furthermore, a company can file for multiple trademarks that are potential candidates for a product’s name. However, a company must file for trademarks in good faith, meaning it must at least be considering using the name in commerce.

“If you filed 100 different [marks] for the same product years in advance, you probably wouldn’t be having a good faith intent, but a few of them doesn’t ring alarm bells,” Wald explained in a phone interview.

In summary, based on appearance of Apple’s trademark specialist on both applications, it’s safe to conclude iSlate and iGuide are trademarks filed for by Apple via the agency CT. And if we are to believe iSlate and iGuide are candidates for an Apple tablet, then there could be a few others out there ? but not very many.

iGuide, though? Bleh.

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