notHarvard.com, an Austin, Texas, online education firm whose name sparked a legal brouhaha with Harvard University, announced yesterday that it has changed its name to Powered Inc.

Flying in the face of credulity, the company asserted that the name change has little to do with the dueling lawsuits filed last month by both parties. Powered said it has retracted its suit against the nation's oldest university.

Chief Executive Officer Judy Bitterli said notHarvard had been looking to change its name since May. That was well before the company -- which offers free online courses to the employees of its customers under the customer's name -- learned from a newspaper reporter that Harvard was considering suing over what it felt was a trademark violation.

Another company spokesman said the suit "had very little to do with" the name change.

Harvard said it would pursue its court action, filed last month in U.S. District Court in Boston, in order to receive a definitive legal judgment over the notHarvard name. Harvard is seeking $75,000 in damages.

Harvard spokesman Joe Wrinn accused Powered executives of indulging in "revisionist history."

"For them to say the name change has been under consideration for some time, when it just happens to coincide with our lawsuit -- well, I have a hard time calling that anything but 'virtual reality,'" a wry Wrinn said. "This has been a clever marketing idea for them, and it's worked very well. I'm afraid to even give an opinion to you since that only gives them more publicity."

Bitterli said the Powered name -- intended as an amalgam of "power" and "education" -- means to show that company has shifted from startup to a mature business.

LATEST NEWS

UCSD Plans First Flash-Based Supercomputer
Digging Into N.Y.'s Antitrust Suit Against Intel
Analyst: Sony-Ericsson's Android Bid Is Late
Coupon Site Targets Black Friday, Cyber Monday
Microsoft Sites Up Big in Time Spent Online

"We're growing up, folks," Bitterli told cheering employees Monday, adding that notHarvard "was a great internal code name that just stuck, but now we've outgrown it."

While Powered said it had chosen the name more than two months ago, Cox Newspapers reported that Powered has only owned the www.powered.com website since Aug. 30, according to records of the Net domain name firm Network Solutions Inc.

The company, which was founded in 1998 and is backed by more than $34 million in venture funding, had previously argued that the "not" in its name clearly distinguished it from Harvard University.

A website disclaimer, which has now been taken down, read, "In no way does our name intend to convey any association with Harvard University. In fact, it is the intent of notHarvard.com -- by using the word NOT -- not to be associated with Harvard University."

That didn't assuage Harvard lawyers, who planned to file suit for trademark violation. Before they could file, notHarvard struck first in early August with a lawsuit of its own, asking a federal court in Austin to protect its notHarvard name. Harvard filed suit in Boston federal court a few days later.

Powered.com has now asked the Texas court to enter a consent decree requiring both parties to dismiss their suits. The company said it would also transer the notHarvard.com domain name to the university.

"That's nice of them to offer us our own name back," Wrinn said. "Their action implies a kind of ownership, which is ridiculous. Their opinion of the value of the Harvard name seems to change with the wind."

Wrinn said Harvard would "absolutely" pursue its case to conclusion. "We want this handled in a way that protects our name on legal authority, not on an individual's promise," he said.