All the Js. [LWN.net]

All the Js.

Posted Mar 24, 2008 18:26 UTC (Mon) by kmccarty (subscriber, #12085)
In reply to: All the Js. by sladen
Parent article: Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Beta released

"Jiving for Jaguar"

Sounds like a good way to get sued by Apple.

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All the Js.

Posted Mar 24, 2008 19:17 UTC (Mon) by proski (guest, #104) [Link] (3 responses)

Actually, Apple itself was arguing that codenames cannot be trademarked when Carl Sagan sued them. If Apple prevails this time, expect to see "Lowly Lawyer" in the Ubuntu pipeline.

All the Js.

Posted Mar 25, 2008 1:11 UTC (Tue) by JoeBuck (subscriber, #2330) [Link] (2 responses)

The Apple/Sagan case was different, because Apple used codenames internally only, to label secret projects. The public was never intended to know that "Carl Sagan" or "BHA" referred to the future Power Macintosh 7100. For Ubuntu names, it's very different (the codenames are public, used in Ubuntu marketing), and the Ubuntu folks would be wise to avoid animals already used by litigious computer companies.

And even though it was an internal code name, Apple settled with Sagan: they won a lower court judgment, but Sagan appealed, and the settlement happened before the appeals court heard the case, so it doesn't establish a precedent. But Apple's defense was that the name wasn't public. Ubuntu codenames are public.

Besides, even if there were no lawyers to be worried about, there's the problem of confusion if "Jaguar" or "Leopard" were to be used by Ubuntu. There's Jackal or Jackrabbit or Jackalope.

All the Js.

Posted Mar 25, 2008 10:38 UTC (Tue) by rsidd (subscriber, #2582) [Link] (1 responses)

What I'd like to know is, what happens if Ubuntu gets to "lion" before Apple does?  Can Apple
claim a trademark on felines?

All the Js.

Posted Mar 25, 2008 14:13 UTC (Tue) by salimma (subscriber, #34460) [Link]

Perhaps that's when OS XI comes in, with a different branding (including naming scheme)?

Judging from Leopard, it looks like they're headed into space. That purple default background
-- ugh. You can change your desktop background, but the default one is used whenever system
updates are installed that requires restarting (the OS restarts, installs the updates very
early during the boot process, and then resumes normal boot)