“The iSlate.com domain was originally registered in October 2004 by a company called Eurobox Ltd. It later changed hands to Data Docket, Inc. in 2006. In 2007, however, the domain was transferred to registrar MarkMonitor.com. MarkMonitor handles domain name registrations and trademark protections for many companies, including Apple. As is typical, however, the name of the actual registrant was initially hidden to obscure the identify of the actual owner. Up until this point, one could still easily dismiss all this as a simple coincidence,” Kim reports. “However, after further investigation of the domain name registrant history, it seems Apple’s name was temporarily exposed as the actual owner of ‘iSlate.com’ for several weeks in late 2007.”
Kim reports, “iSlate.com currently points to no website.”
More info in the full article here.
In a followup article, Kim reports, “We have discovered evidence that Apple is indeed behind Slate Computing, LLC and the iSlate trademark. The trademark application documents for the iSlate reveal the signatory being one Regina Porter.”
“Regina Porter happens to also be Apple’s Senior Trademark Specialist as shown in her Linkedin profile. While we can’t definitely pinpoint this to be the exact same Regina Porter, it seems beyond the realm of coincidence,” Kim reports. “So, not only did Apple obtain the iSlate.com domain in late 2006/early 2007, it also seems likely that Apple also filed for an iSlate trademark under a dummy corporation.”
Kim reports, “Another interesting tidbit, as first noted by Fscklog, iSlate is not the only trademark that Slate Computing, LLC has filed for in the United States. The company also filed for a trademark for “Magic Slate”. The term was categorized broadly to cover Computers, computer peripherals, computer hardware and much more.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: iSlate. IsLate. Sounds more like a Microsoft product to us.
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