Microsoft Sued Over 'Forefront' Name
By Ed Oswald, BetaNews
September 15, 2006, 3:39 PM
A Seattle-based developer of construction software sued Microsoft in U.S. District Court in Seattle Friday, claiming the Redmond company's use of the 'Forefront' brand would confuse its customers. Dexter + Chaney has been using the mark since 1988, and has asked the court for an injunction against Microsoft.
At TechEd in June, Microsoft introduced the Forefront brand for its line of security products, which was formerly known as Microsoft Client Protection. At the core of Forefront will be Client Security, along with Microsoft's new Antigen lineup.
"Construction companies throughout the United States know and respect the 'Forefront' name," Dexter + Chaney vice president of sales and marketing Brad Matthews said.
The Forefront software application handles management, service management, construction accounting and other functions at construction sites, and is used by some 1,000 companies across the United States, the company said.
Dexter + Chaney said it asked Microsoft to not use the name, but the Redmond company declined the request. The company has owned trademark rights to the name for 18 years, according to a statement.
"A quick Google search reveals that Forefront is a term used by many companies: ForeFront Records, Forefront Church, Bell Microproducts (which has Forefront.com), Forefront Cirriculum and Forefront Television Products, among many, many others. Qualifying that I'm no lawyer, Forefont is widely used in company names," remarked Jupiter Research senior analyst Joe Wilcox.
"That said, Forefront Construction Suite is a 25-year old product, is software and appears to carry a trademark for Forefront. These are not trivial factors in evaluating the merits of any possible court case."
Microsoft spokesperson Jack Evans told BetaNews, "As a trademark owner, Microsoft understands the value and importance of trademarks and makes every effort to respect the legitimate trademark rights of others. For that reason, we carefully review names for our new products and consider the possible use of those names by other companies to avoid any conflict."
"In this instance, we believe the specific use of the name Microsoft Forefront will not cause any confusion in the marketplace since the products and the channels of trade for them are significantly different. Microsoft’s product is a back-end, server-based security product while Dexter & Chaney’s product is a client-based software product intended specifically for managing construction projects,” Evans added.
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