Steve Lohr writes that trademarking is being steadily expanded to the web
link here. "For the empirical proof, look at the filings with the government for new trademarks that, put simply, are brand names," he writes. "It lies beyond putting trademarks on new businesses, Web site addresses and online logos. Now, companies want to slap a brand on still vaguely defined products and services in the uncharted ephemera of cyberspace the computing cloud, as it has come to be known."
Lohr provides several examples. Dell tried to trademark Cloud Computing and now Microsoft is trying something with the phrase Live together with another word, like Mesh, as if Live somehow made the phrase unique.
This attempt to extend the reach of trademark has not gone unopposed, since it is clearly an attempt to extend monopoly into new areas.