AFAIK Excel is not yet a Microsoft Trademark, although I believe the Excel
logos are copyright and/or protected.
I am not an intellectual property lawyer, but my understanding is that its
OK unless the Product/service can be seen as competing with, replacing part
of, pretending to be, or looking like Microsoft Excel (passing-off)
If you are building on top of Excel and make it clear that your
product/service has Microsoft Excel as a prerequisite and its OK on the
passing-off tests then you should be alright.
If in doubt you should get an opinion from an IP lawyer familiar with the
geographies you plan to operate in.
Charles
______________________
Decision Models
FastExcel 2.1 now available
www.DecisionModels.com
wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi,
Is it legal to use the word Excel as part of the name of a new
product/service building on top of Microsoft Excel? E.g.
www.superexcel.com
Thanks for your help!
Reto