During the holidays, someone at Sony figured out that the words "Voyage" and "Agent" could be combined to form a cool-sounding word. They think so highly of their creation - "VoyAgent" - that they've filed a trademark for it.

The trademark applies to "game services provided on-line from a computer network; entertainment services, namely, providing on-line computer games, music, video and related information; rental of audio equipment; online distribution of music, image or video; providing on-line electronic publications, not downloadable; online distribution of radio and television programs."

This online distribution service will be used by a wide variety of electronic devices. "Video game machines," "digital still cameras," "facsimile machines" and "audio disc players and recorders" are just a few examples cited in the application. No information is provided beyond that.

An almost identical trademark was filed on the same day for "Cloudsurf". The only difference between the applications is that the Cloudsurf trademark also applies to "Communications by computer terminals; Mobile telephone communication; Providing telecommunication connections to the internet or databases; Broadcasting services and provision of telecommunication access to video and audio content provided via the Internet."

I'd love to be able to tell you what the hell this all means. Hopefully Sony will do it for me in short order.