Microsoft has filed for a trademark on "Kumo," which the company is reportedly considering as the new name for its Live Search engine. But the filing, made Dec. 4, seeks to reserve rights to the name for more than just search.

The company might just be covering its bases by being as broad as possible. But apart from the references to core search functionality in the trademark filing, there's a mention of "telecommunication services, including receipt and delivery of information, messages, documents, images and other data by electronic transmission."

For whatever it's worth, that seems more like a reference to e-mail or instant-messaging.

As noted previously, an unknown person in Venezuela filed for a trademark on the Kumo name earlier this year, also under the category of search engines. I have a call out to a trademark lawyer to try to figure out the implications of that earlier filing. I've also asked Microsoft if it's now in a position to comment on its plans for the Kumo name. I'll update this post depending on the response.

(Trademark filing via LiveSide and Seattle P-I)

Update, 4:30 p.m.: Looks like Microsoft has a solid defense if it comes down to a trademark dispute with Dascar Samira Facendo, the Venezuelan who filed for the Kumo trademark previously.

I spoke this afternoon with Michael Atkins, a trademark lawyer at Graham & Dunn who has been following the Kumo saga on his Seattle Trademark Lawyer blog. On the phone, Atkins dug deeper into the filings and discovered that Microsoft is citing the fact that it applied for the Kumo trademark in June in South Africa, of all places. Under U.S. law, that would appear to give Microsoft precedence over Facendo's subsequent application for the trademark.

"Basically, Microsoft is saying, 'Nice try, but we filed ahead of you,' " Atkins said.

For the record, a Microsoft spokesman declined to comment on the company's plans for the Kumo name.