Google files Fi trademark in Canada, but don’t get too excited

A trademark for Fi has been filed by Google in the Canadian Intellectual Property Office — don’t get excited yet though.

Google Fi is the Mountain View, California-based company’s MVNO telecommunication platform that offers cellular service. The platform operates on networks owned by U.S. carriers like Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Celluar and Three.

Google first launched Fi back in April of 2015 exclusively for its Nexus 6 smartphone. Support for additional devices like the Pixel and Pixel XL was eventually added in 2016, followed by a rebrand from ‘Project Fi’ to ‘Google Fi’ in 2018.

In the U.S. a subscription to Fi is priced at $20 USD per month for unlimited calling and messaging, along with a customizable data cap that costs an extra $10 per gigabyte. Unused data is credited back to the user’s account the following month.

It’s possible, though unlikely, that Google could have reached an agreement with a major Canadian carrier like Bell, Telus or Rogers regarding Fi’s launch in Canada.

The trademark for Google Fi was filed on January 24th, 2018 and is listed as a ‘Word Mark.’ The Statement description regarding ‘Goods’ reads as follows:

“Software for the transmission of voice, data, image, and audio; network management software, software for billing analysis; software for accessing a global computer network and interactive computer communications network.’ 

Concerning ‘services’ the trademark filing says the following:

‘Telecommunication services, namely, transmission of voice, data, images, audio, video via telephone and global communication networks; providing access to a global communication network; voice mail services; text messaging services”

As with every trademark filing, this doesn’t necessarily mean Fi is coming to Canada. Google filing a Fi related trademark in Canada could be the tech giant just protecting its intellectual property.

Along with filing a Fi, Google also recently filed a trademark for Duplex in Canada, the company’s extension of Google Assistant that is capable of carrying natural conversations. The trademark for Duplex was filed on January 28th.

Source: Canadian Intellectual Property Office

The post Google files Fi trademark in Canada, but don’t get too excited appeared first on MobileSyrup.

from MobileSyrup http://bit.ly/2SCCGLX