Dish Network may use “Ollo” as the name for forthcoming wireless voice, video and data services and devices, according to filings with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.
The satellite company’s Nov. 9 trademark filing on the name was spotted by FierceCable’s Steve Donohue. Dish has been amassing wireless spectrum, spending about $3 billion this year, fueling speculation that the company is gearing up to launch some kind of mobile service (see Ergen’s Ace In The Hole?).
Dish declined to comment specifically on “Ollo,” with a spokesman saying, “We routinely submit trademark filings to support our products and service.”
The company’s application said Ollo covers telecommunications services and equipment, including among other things, “telephones and wireless and mobile telephones for voice, data, image, graphic, audio, video and fax communications… tablet PC’s, personal digital assistants, smartphones” and “accessories for mobile phones, namely, batteries; battery chargers; cigarette lighter adapters; hands-free headsets; carrying cases and belt clips.”
But it’s hard to come up with an original name these days.
Ollo already is the name of a toy-robot kit from Korean manufacturer Robotis. Ollo also is a town in northern Spain, the name of a character in a children’s video game and a line of TV wall-mount brackets. And the domain name Ollo.com is registered through August 2016 to a U.K.-based entity calling itself Ollo Ltd.
Dish’s trademark attorneys have been busy, also recently filing applications for “Hopper,” “HopBox” and “Joey,” which would cover DVRs, set-top boxes, universal remote controls and media-streaming devices.
Meanwhile, Dish has annoyed the cable industry in trying to secure trademark protection on “TV Everywhere” — which has been used generically since Time Warner Inc. CEO Jeff Bewkes started using it to refer to authenticated video services in early 2009. Most recently, the USPTO granted Cox an extension through Dec. 31 to file an opposition (see Cox Gets More Time To Oppose Dish’s Claim On ‘TV Everywhere’).
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