Salesforce.com inc is a San Francisco-based customer relationship management (CRM) software provider that offers cloud-based software, including app development, analytics, customer service, and marketing automation.
Salesforce is the world’s leading cloud-based computer software provider using its 56,000 strong employee workforce to deliver services to more than 150,000 businesses worldwide.
The Salesforce.com Domain
The salesforce.com domain was registered in December of 1998 and will expire in October 2022 unless it is renewed before then.
Salesforce.com was first registered with the trademark office in December of 2000.
The History of Salesforce.com, Inc
The company was officially founded as a small startup in Telegraph hill out of a one-bedroom apartment in February 1999 by Marc Benioff in partnership with his three friends Parker Harris, Dave Moellenhoff, and Frank Dominguez.
In July of 1999, Marc relocated everyone to a new office at the Rincon Center.
Salesforce was launched publicly as a SaaS company somewhere between September and November of the same year.
One year later, by November 2000, the team couldn’t be contained in the Rincon Center office, necessitating a move to One Market Street.
Salesforce is revolutionary, creative, and not afraid to stand out. At the turn of the century, Salesforce held their first event – their launch event. This took place at the Regency theater and included several surprises for the guests intended. Including the theater’s lower level being turned into a space that represented Enterprise Software – aka, ”Hell”.
There were several games, such as whack-a-mole with the moles representing software companies. Salesforce first appeared with their negative brand advertising, the ”No Software” logo alongside this event.
This unique event allowed Salesforce to make quite a splash and make a name for themselves in the digital sphere, and the ”No software” logo is still synonymous with Salesforce.com today.
2003 Birthed one of the most iconic events associated with Salesforce – dreamforce, the name given to Salesforce’s four-day annual event full of fun activities, keynotes, and networking opportunities.
In 2004 Salesforce debuted on the stock market, making their IPO at just $11 per share.
In 2005, the iconic Salesforce AppExchange was launched. BusinessWeek dubbed it ”The eBay of business software” and Forbes said similar, calling it the ”iTunes of business software”. The AppExchange is a cloud marketplace with apps ready to install that will allow you to merge Salesforce with every industry and department. It was the first online library of its kind, offering a wealth of downloadable software.
In 2006, Salesforce announced the release of several key innovations that promised to change the way developers see Salesforce forever.
Apex was most significant – being Salesforce’s on-demand programming language which allows third parties to write and run code on multi-tenant shared architecture provided by Salesforce. But Apex wasn’t the only thing to launch this year.
VisualForce was the brainchild of Parker Harris and would allow any user to create the user interfaces that they wanted, customized to their own requirements. They could build forms, buttons, links and embed whatever they wanted. This would pave the way for the next logical step from the Salesforce SaaS platform, platform-as-a-service.
Salesforce continued the trend of upwards growth and in 2013 broke into the mobile application market with their Salesforce Mobile functionality giving you access to a select amount of your Salesforce information on the go, with the ultimate ideal being a comparable amount of information being accessed between computer and Mobile versions.
In October 2014, Salesforce further revolutionized its platform by launching its Customer Success Platform, which promised to tie together their services, including sales, service, marketing, community, analytics, and mobile apps.
In October 2017, Salesforce launched an analytics tool for business-to-business marketers on social media, and in September 2018, Salesforce announced a partnership with Apple that was geared towards improving apps for businesses.
Salesforce.com has grown exponentially since its inception, with share prices reaching over $300 each currently (compared to $11 at IPO). Salesforce revenue has also grown year on year, and in 2021, annual revenue stands at $21.25 Billion, a far cry from the startup that was operated out of a one-bedroom apartment.
Read more on domain name trademarks
Other Salesforce Trademark Information
Salesforce.com Inc has trademarked AppExchange – a popular e-commerce marketplace offering solutions such as apps/software that approved partners can offer to be supplied to customers alongside their existing salesforce subscription.
AppExchange was revolutionary at its time. The concept of an online computer software store was very new – so new it even predated the Apple AppStore by several years. It has only grown in popularity over the years since its creation. The AppExchange comprises over 5,000 ready-to-install solutions, and over 6 million customer installs to help resolve any issues for your computer services. There are also thousands of peer reviews.
AppExchange doesn’t have its standalone domain and instead functions as part of the main salesforce.com website; however, the trademark application was submitted to the USPTO in August 2005, with the first recorded use taking place sometime in early 2006.
Another significant trademarked part of the Salesforce.com, Inc network is Chatter. Chatter is the largest enterprise social network that allows employees to connect, share data, exchange files, and network. It promotes efficiency and productivity across departments by promoting clear, easy communication.
Salesforce’ chatter is a tremendous internal collaboration application that is available and simple to get to grips with, and doesn’t require steep learning curves. Simple user interfaces make it easy for even a relative beginner to understand the program. Chatter is also mobile compatible, making it even easier and convenient to use. Like AppExchange, Chatter is trademarked but lacks a domain of its own. The trademark filing for chatter initially took place in July of 2011, but the first recorded use in commerce was in November 2009.
Last but not least, Survey Force is a nifty tool that Salesforce.com provides. You can create three types of questions (single select, multi-select, and free form text) and organize your questions in a drag and drop formation. Market research can be a brilliant tool in your business’s toolbox and help you design effective sales strategies. Surveys can be sent out via email templates or sites, and easy-to-digest analytics are also offered to further assist you. The initial USPTO filing date for SurveyForce is September 2010, having first been used in commerce in August of the same year.
Wrapping up
To guarantee the safety of your business’s intellectual property, you must make use of the protections offered to you by copyright law, which gives you a way to defend yourself in cases of trademark infringement. It is risky for your business’s development if you don’t have any recourse to legally defend your business. To have the legal ability to defend your business, including the brand you’ve worked hard to build, you need to reserve service marks/trademarks.
With at least 400 service marks belonging to Salesforce.com, Inc they clearly understand how crucial it is to preemptively secure their intellectual property.
Salesforce is a modern, innovative, forward-thinking computer software provider, so it won’t surprise anyone that they’re aware of the risks posed to their business operations if the integrity of their intellectual property is compromised, especially in the digital age.
