Apple now owns CUPS (Linux-Watch)

Apple now owns CUPS (Linux-Watch)

From the article:
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The CUPS name, logo and full-spelled-out name had been trademarked by Easy Software Products. Apple now owns these trademarks.

According to Sweet,"These names and logos may be used freely in any direct port or binary distribution of CUPS. To use them in derivative products, please contract Apple Inc. for written permission. Our intention is to protect the value of these trademarks and ensure that any derivative product meets the same high-quality standards as the original."
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Alright, the code is GPL, and can be used to make any derivative works anyone wants, provided the terms of the GPL are obeyed. However, nobody can call further hacking on the CUPS codebase "CUPS", unless Apple approves the changes. Same old deal, if you want to take it in a different direction than the project maintainer, fork it and call it something else. The privilege of full use of the code is something other than the privilege of trade dress usage. Have we really lost anything? Do we actually stand to lose anything we actually had in the first place?

It may be argued what Apple thinks they own, since -- while this is as close to "all right and title" as Free Software gets -- they can only cut off the branch they're standing on from future development. Hopefully this doesn't become another XFree86 or Ethereal. Hooray for X.org and Wireshark.