Bell IP Holdings
Encyclopedia
Bell IP
Holdings is a joint venture of AT&T
, Verizon, CenturyLink
, and Cincinnati Bell
(or their respective subsidiaries) which owns the rights to the former Bell System
logos and trademarks outside of the U.S. and Canada. It also administers a variety of related common assets such as the domain name bell.com.
In the United States, the aforementioned operating companies each own concurrent rights to the Bell trademarks. Bell Canada
retained sole rights to the marks in that country after its spinoff from AT&T in 1956.
Bell IP Holdings was created as result of the sale of Bell Communications Research, Incorporated (Bellcore) to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in 1996.
As a part of the court-ordered restructure of AT&T in 1984, the Bell Logo and Trademarks had been granted to Bellcore, to own and manage on behalf of the seven Regional Bell Operating Systems (RBOCs) and two of the smaller former Bell telecoms, centered in Cincinnati, Ohio and Hartford Connecticut.
The RBOC's determined that the sale of Bellcore to SAIC should be limited to the software and tangible property owned by the consortium, but that the ownership and related value of the Bell name and logo needed to remain with the sellers. Bell IP Holdings was created for the purpose of sustaining that ownership, and thereby preserving the Intellectual Property (IP) value for the Owner Companies (OCs) over time, despite the inevitability of subsequent sales, reallocations and reassignments of specific rights.
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
Holdings is a joint venture of AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
, Verizon, CenturyLink
CenturyLink
CenturyLink, Inc. is a United States telecommunications firm, headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana. The company, founded as Central Telephone & Electronics Corporation in 1968, later changed its name to Century Telephone Enterprises, Inc. in 1971, and then was called CenturyTel, Inc. from 1999 to 2010...
, and Cincinnati Bell
Cincinnati Bell
Cincinnati Bell is the dominant telephone company for Cincinnati, Ohio, and its nearby suburbs in the U.S. states of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. The parent company is named Cincinnati Bell Inc. Its incumbent local exchange carrier subsidiary uses the name Cincinnati Bell Telephone Company LLC,...
(or their respective subsidiaries) which owns the rights to the former Bell System
Bell System
The Bell System was the American Bell Telephone Company and then, subsequently, AT&T led system which provided telephone services to much of the United States and Canada from 1877 to 1984, at various times as a monopoly. In 1984, the company was broken up into separate companies, by a U.S...
logos and trademarks outside of the U.S. and Canada. It also administers a variety of related common assets such as the domain name bell.com.
In the United States, the aforementioned operating companies each own concurrent rights to the Bell trademarks. Bell Canada
Bell Canada
Bell Canada is a major Canadian telecommunications company. Including its subsidiaries such as Bell Aliant, Northwestel, Télébec, and NorthernTel, it is the incumbent local exchange carrier for telephone and DSL Internet services in most of Canada east of Manitoba and in the northern territories,...
retained sole rights to the marks in that country after its spinoff from AT&T in 1956.
Bell IP Holdings was created as result of the sale of Bell Communications Research, Incorporated (Bellcore) to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in 1996.
As a part of the court-ordered restructure of AT&T in 1984, the Bell Logo and Trademarks had been granted to Bellcore, to own and manage on behalf of the seven Regional Bell Operating Systems (RBOCs) and two of the smaller former Bell telecoms, centered in Cincinnati, Ohio and Hartford Connecticut.
The RBOC's determined that the sale of Bellcore to SAIC should be limited to the software and tangible property owned by the consortium, but that the ownership and related value of the Bell name and logo needed to remain with the sellers. Bell IP Holdings was created for the purpose of sustaining that ownership, and thereby preserving the Intellectual Property (IP) value for the Owner Companies (OCs) over time, despite the inevitability of subsequent sales, reallocations and reassignments of specific rights.