CNET reports that Palm unleashed its lawyers on Palm-related fan web sites. A letter sent to the operator of one such site, for example, said,
Palm Inc. is proud to have a positive and productive relationship with Web sites promoting the Palm OS. We do not in any way want this relationship to deteriorate. However, we must insist that you work with us to re-brand your Web site in a manner that does not infringe Palm’s trademark rights.
Rebranding? They want such sites to stop using the term “Palm”, especially in domain names, in favor of “Palm OS.”
This is beyond bizarre. Apparently it is part of some broader marketing strategy by Palm to include Palm OS devices such as the Sony Clie and the Handspring Visor (which sounds about right — that’s the sort of idiotic result that comes about whenever you get an internal focus group together within a sizable corporation).
This is especially stupid for Palm because it means all new domain names for the best known Palm-related web sites, which means that for many users finding Palm related web sites will become somewhat more difficult in the short term.
At least two of the sites hit by the letters asking for a name change went out and registered domain names with “Pocket” in them, alluding to Microsoft’s handheld OS.
Just another small indication that Palm no longer has a clue.