Article: Head lost in the clouds of computing.(THE HOME FORUM)

Byline: Ruth Walker

It would be too much to say that intellectual freedom has just dodged a bullet. But a decision earlier this month by the US Patent and Trademark Office did leave some people cheering, or at least smiling. Dell, the computermaker, had sought to trademark the phrase "cloud computing," but the Patent Office said ixnay.

The idea behind cloud computing is that a business or other organization can get the computing services it needs over the Internet (seen as a "cloud" for some reason), rather than investing in server hardware and software that "live" on the organization's own premises. It's like getting your electricity over power lines instead of ...

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