Aladdin Systems, Inc., an IMSI company today announced that it changed its name to Allume Systems, Inc. (“Allume”). The name change was a condition of Aladdin Systems’ settlement of a trademark lawsuit with Aladdin Knowledge Systems. Allume is dedicated to its mission to deliver everyday solutions that are easy to use and technically advanced. The entire Aladdin Systems’ product line, including StuffIt, SpamCatcher, Spring Cleaning, and Internet Cleanup, will be rebranded under the Allume Systems name over the coming year. The new Web address is [url=http://www.allume.com]http://www.allume.com[/url] . Customers who enter [url=http://www.aladdinsys.com]http://www.aladdinsys.com[/url] will be redirected to the allume.com site over the next several years.
As a leader in the software industry over the last 14 years, Allume expects to continue lighting the way for its customers. Allume signifies a new beginning and opportunity to grow,” said Jonathan Kahn, President of Allume Systems in the press release. “It reflects the bright future we see and our continued dedication to serving our customers and providing them with the best software products and services they have come to expect.”
In April of this year, Aladdin Systems became a wholly owned subsidiary of IMSI, inc. and started this second chapter in its history. Today’s announcement is part of this change. Building on 14 years of success, Allume expects to expand and accelerate its software offerings over the next six months and seek new opportunities of growth.
The company agreed to change its name as part of settling its trademark suit with Aladdin Knowledge Systems. The transition to Allume will be completed over the course of a year. This should should have minimal impact on customers and partners because of notification and URL redirection.
Am I the only person who sees something dreadfully wrong with this? Alladin Systems has been around for 14 YEARS.. what the HELL is up with our “trademark” system if a company around that long has to change it’s name cos someone else gets their panties in a bunch??
Aladdin Systems seems to me to be a much more KNOWN entity than Aladdin Knowledge Systems. ??
In fact, until this article, I never even heard of them.
Sounds like Aladdin Systems hired the wrong set of lawyers.
That’s what sucks about the US Legal system.. Justice is blind my ass.. justice is bought and paid for here. Just look at OJ, if he was a poor man going into his murder trial his ass would be in jail now.
I had never heard of them either. However, they’ve been around since 1985:
“Aladdin (Nasdaq: ALDN) is a leader in digital security, providing solutions for software digital rights management and Internet security since 1985.”
From here.
They should change their name to:
The compression and archiving company that had to change our 14 year old name because our attorney’s said we have to or we’ll have to pay a boatload of money to Aladdin’s attorneys. Or just TCAACTHTCO14YONBOASWHTOWHTPABOMTAA for short.
It doesn’t matter if you personally have heard of them or not, they had the name first, cock-munch. Result? Allume.
“…Internet security since 1985” ? Really?
“…Internet security since 1985″ ? Really?” – natis
Exactly why you didn’t hear them. Internet was still a DoD project and classified.
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Of course they’re going to sue, they’re a DRM company!
Someone probably pointed out to them that another company had been using their name (Stolen from ancient stories of the Orient) for over 14 years. What kind of credibility does that give a DRM company when they can’t even police their own trademark?
Not much, if you ask me.
Fine Aladdin’s lawyers suck.
But ALLUME?!?!?!?!! Why not just change the name to Stuffit Inc. Simple recognizable, and much less branding work necessary.
>>But ALLUME?!?!?!?!! Why not just change the name to Stuffit Inc. Simple recognizable, and much less branding work necessary.<<
Not to mention, I nice little send off to Aladdin Knowledge. I’m all for Stuffit. I hate these trademark disputes. Especially when most of them are, some company know one but their mother and staff member have heard of, and even they aren’t likely to confuse the two, against a name that has intense name recognition. Like Rendezvous ?? is ever going to have better name recognition than Apple’s former Rendezvous, and now Aladdin. (sigh)
Allume is pronounced in French, right?
A-LOO-MAY.. the french word for lit, as in “the candle is lit” Allum�.
Of course.. the cool thing about it is that Allume, in English, isn’t a word, which makes it a great brand name..
Unlike ‘Creative’ or ‘Apple’
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Until this article, I had never heard of them either.
I agree with ‘Tommy’ and ‘allgood2’, Stuffit is the more appropriate Tradename – for the reasons listed. Although Mike makes a good point regarding Allume not being an English word.
You’d think that the judge would have queried AKS as to why it took them 14 years to defend their Tradename.
Maybe Allume intends to produce security (DRM, anti-virus) software hence the name territory clash?
In French slang, Allume also mean that a guy is crazy “Ce type est completement allum�” = this guy is way out of his mind.
Worst, it also mean that the person is sexually aroused. “cette fille est super allum�e” mean that “this girl is super hot/wet…”
It’s very common in french to hear that. It’s not obscure French expressions.
MacUser will have fun in France with this rebranding. By the way, Franch love Apple products a lot.
Charles from Canada (French part)
Choosing a foreign word as a trademark is good until you sell products into the native country of your “trademark”.
May be “windows” is a simple word in english speaking country, but not in holland for example (that’s why Lindows has to change it’s brand, because windiws is a brand in Holland, not a word).
Better choise is to create a brand from nothing. No country or language issues.
Never heard of Aladdin Knowledge Systems… Who were THEIR lawyers?!
What ever happened to Raymond Lau who started the whole Stuffit thing? I hope he’s still making decent royalties!