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A new communications service, produced by Jersey developers, has become one of the first in the world to trademark a keyboard symbol.
SPOC, which stands for Single Point of Contact, has received permission to trademark the ^ symbol for use with their single word communications service. The service gives customers a unique username, which people can use to search for them. The username is then linked to phone numbers, email addresses, or any other communications platform the customer wishes to be contacted through.
Peter Le Fol, Founder of SPOC, said: “SPOC is the first service that looks to get above all the communications platforms giving people the freedom to choose which platforms they use, and to change when they want without being financially penalised for it.
“As the number of instant messaging platforms and VOIP programmes increase it becomes even harder to work out how you should contact people – which platforms they actually use, and what their exact usernames are. SPOC simplifies this by supplying you with the correct and most up to date information.”
The ^ symbol is part of the digital signature for SPOC so you can use one word, such as your name, as a point of contact.
SPOC can currently be used through the website, or downloaded as an i-phone app. When someone finds you through SPOC they can either access your details if you’ve chosen for them to be public e.g. for a business, or can send a follow request to get in touch if you’ve chosen to keep your contact details private.
Mr Le Fol said: “We have just received the news that we have been able to trademark the ^ symbol for use with SPOC and are delighted about it.
“It has taken about five months to get the application though as the descriptions for the trade marking text needed to be refined. We were quite nervous about getting this done so soon and it was quite time consuming getting the terminology right. We had to define the terms of use of the ^ symbol very tightly.”
Read a full interview with Peter Le Fol about setting up SPOC in the March edition of Connect, out 1 March.
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