Design Firm Sues Microsoft Over Bing Trademark

Do you think that anybody might have been using the word “Bing” in its name before Microsoft used it for its Bing search engine? If you did, you’re right, as a small graphic design firm has been using “Bing!” for its branding since early 2000 (according to the company’s claims). The company, Bing! Information Design, has filed a case in St. Louis circuit court. The weird part is that the company waited until May 26th 2009 to attempt to register the trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office, which was then rejected because Microsoft had already applied for the trademark “Bing”, and the case reviewer judged that the extra punctuation was an insignificant difference to Microsoft’s trademark application. What do you think about the Bing branding? Should Microsoft of the graphic design firm be able to use it?