Would it be legal for someone to manufacture and sell 3rd party Steamboxes, if Valve has no immediate plans to do so?

It seems like somebody like Alienware, or even just somebody on Kickstarter, could put together something impressive at a XBox720/PS4 pricepoint.

You might want to talk to valve before using the word "Steam" in the name of your product...

Otherwise I can't see an impediment. Maybe Valve could even have a 'designed for Steam' certification program or something.

Well, obviously all PCs are Steamboxes, technically speaking. However, if it's a streamlined box that plugs right into a television and boots right to steam, I could maybe see them putting up a stink, even if the branding was sufficiently ambiguous.

The MistBox ;)

I don't know, though. To be honest, I'm kind of shocked no one has tried this yet. It seems like such an obvious winner, even if there is a slight chance you would go to court with Valve.

I was thinking the other way around - that they might be perfectly encouraging of selling such a device, just that using 'Steam' (their TM) in the name or advertising without permission might get you in trouble.

I think it's a great idea!

The killer feature would be to sell the computer with a preloaded Steam account that already has the orange box plus portal 2 and the L4D games.

Now that's a Steambox.