I have been called a number of things in my life (you should hear my ex-wife describe me), but "moron" isn't one I have heard often. So I was surprised recently to see Mark Madsen call me one on Twitter, in regard to our trademark on the brand "Agile Data Warehouse". 

Full 360 has used the marks "Agile Data Warehousing" and "Agile Data Warehouse" since 2005. We were one of the first firms to utilize the agile methodology in data warehousing implementations. Borne out of the eXtreme programming techniques we were using on the product development side and applied to our consulting practice, it was a real differentiator in data warehouse implementations vs. the (then) traditional approaches. And this was three years before the book from Ralph Hughes came out. Hardly moronic, even if I say so myself.

We actually registered both marks in 2006, but the application inadvertently lapsed. Here is the website snippet in '05 describing our Service:

"Agile Data Warehousing℠ methodology

In developing this methodology we have adapted tenets of a proven data warehousing methodology - Corporate information Factory (CIF) to create our basic framework and philosophy. We also extended this with an adaptation of a proven agile project management approach – Extreme Programming (XP) to create our assessment and implementation approach." (http://ow.ly/2fzS9 on the internet archive)

So we re-registered Agile Data Warehouse™ when we launched the BI in the Cloud stack (Jaspersoft, Talend, Vertica, Rightscale) earlier this year. The context to that branding decision was simple: we had been using ADW in our collateral for years. So the fact that we put (tm) on the product name is NOT new, as it may have appeared to someone unfamiliar with Full 360.

The dustup over the IP started as a private discussion with another data warehouse vendor, when we received an email blast from them using a subject line identical to one we used to launch the ADW in February of this year. When we contacted them, instead of speaking with us directly they decided to “stir the pot” by misdirecting the analyst community into reacting publicly via twitter.

To be clear: we were not sending any cease and desist notices. We were simply pointing out the overlap in their messaging and ours and suggesting a discussion of potential joint work – an agile implementation of The Agile Data Warehouse™. 

In any case, Mark has since acknowledged on twitter that we have been using the Agile Data Warehouse moniker since '05. Still haven't seen an apology for unfairly being called a moron <grin>.

 

It was also interesting to read some of the responses to Mark's tweet. It doesn't look like folks understand common law basics around trademarks. In order to have the legal right to use a trademark, a company must either be the first to use the mark in interstate commerce or be the first to register the mark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), whichever comes first. It's also important for the brand to own the website url, twitter ids and Facebook vanity pages and use them in context of the commercial aspects of the brand. 

The confusion with the Agile methodology and the now common use is a legitimate concern, and despite us being the first to use it in commerce, we were considering alternatives to the name to better fit the unique offering of the BI stack in the cloud, even before this dustup. Watch this space.