Vistarded?

Evan Brown makes an interesting observation:

Has Microsoft forgotten to file a trademark application for the name of its new operating system?

Microsoft has announced that the name of its new operating system coming out next year will be called "Vista." As of the date of this posting, a search of the records of the United States Patent and Trademark Office reveals no applications on file for the mark VISTA owned by Microsoft. If this an oversight or merely a consequence of the several day backlog for getting information about new applications online?

A quick check of the Patent and Trademark Office's TESS trademark search system using the query string "(vista)[FM] and (software)[GS]" (wherein "vista" is the Full Mark and "software" is within the Goods and Services field) turns up 43 hits, of which 16 are live registered marks. The elevator company Thyssen has a couple for its control software (registration numbers 2974298 and 2903863). The Veterans Administration uses that name for its medical records management software, which they are (or soon will be) giving away to doctors nationwide.

I'm curious what Vista Software, a Microsoft database partner, makes of all this.

[Update]