Who The Heck Actually Owns Thunderbolt, Intel or Apple?

Photo by salendron - http://flic.kr/p/6r4siH

That new MacBook Pro of yours, may be more Apple than originally thought. Although Intel was credited with the Thunderbolt trademark on early 2011 Apple laptops, it now appears that Apple may have beaten them to the bunch and snuck in their own trademark application a year ahead of time. Is this cricket?

The trademark was filed in Jamaica, Thursday reports say. Intel has been credited with the name, although the chipmaker has made no claims it owns the trademark. Originally codenamed Light Peak, the Thunderbolt technology boasts data transfer speeds up to 10Gbps.

At the moment, Apple is the only computer maker to sell Thunderbolt products. Sony has mulled using it, but as of yesterday decided to try to fragment Thunderbolt instead, while HP decided to go with USB 3.0 for its desktops.

If the trademark stands, Apple may be the sole user of the Thunderbolt name. That could explain why Apple’s competitors are so slow to adopt the standard without modifications, and could hint at a rocky future for Thunderbolt when it comes to acceptance.

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