top of page
IP News Bulletin

A Small Town UK educator faces Trademark bullying by Microsoft



Word Windows is a tool that Duston, Northampton (UK) native Kate McKenzie invented.


She said that nine days before the product was scheduled to hit the market, Microsoft sent her a letter stating that it challenged her trademark.


Mrs. McKenzie claimed that her experience with dyslexia and the difficulties her son was having with reading at school motivated her to develop the gadget, which can be placed on top of books.


It provides a window that can open and close in order to isolate the word you're attempting to read, she explained.


"You can pick out a word's first letter, a word sound, a prefix, or a suffix. They can learn those letters at school fairly quickly, but it can be far more difficult for them to understand them when they are suddenly combined into a word.


It might be simpler for them if everything surrounding it is blocked off."


Mrs. McKenzie claimed that Microsoft's legal counsel wrote her a letter on July 1.


She claimed that it amounted to a threat of legal action against the Word Windows trademark.


"They weren't satisfied with the company name, and they weren't happy with the trademark."


Mrs. McKenzie claimed that because she had already invested money in creating all of the packaging and branding, she was unable to change the name.


"I've been in talks with Microsoft to try to settle the issue and show that I'm not trying to stifle their services or products - I'm just trying to raise literacy levels in the UK,"

Being at odds with the major IT business, according to Mrs. McKenzie, was bizarre.

Despite the fact that I was completely sad, my husband managed to find humour in the situation and asked, "Don't you think it's pretty hilarious that the behemoth of Microsoft has found you in Duston?"


11 views0 comments

Comments


Post: Blog2_Post
bottom of page