Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2001 22:29:30 -0700 From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> To: "Gunnar H Reichert-Weygold" <patron1@paganlibrary.com>, <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: Use of the UNIX Trademark Message-ID: <000501c15083$5f1787c0$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> In-Reply-To: <01100820163507.00577@gunnar.weygold.edu>
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>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
>[mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG]On Behalf Of Gunnar H
>Reichert-Weygold
>Sent: Monday, October 08, 2001 8:17 PM
>To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
>Subject: Re: Use of the UNIX Trademark
>
>
>According to "The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing: (www.dict.org)
>
>(BSD) A family of Unix versions for the
> DEC VAX and PDP-11, developed by Bill Joy and others
> at the University of California at Berkeley. BSD Unix
> incorporates paged virtual memory, TCP/IP networking
> enhancements, and many other features.
>
> BSD UNIX 4.0 was released on 19 October 1980. The BSD
> versions (4.1, 4.2, and 4.3) and the commercial versions
> derived from them ({SunOS, ULTRIX, Mt. Xinu, Dynix)
> held the technical lead in the Unix world until AT&T's
> successful standardisation efforts after about 1986, and are
> still widely popular.
>
> See also Berzerkeley, USG Unix.
>
>
>
>It looks like there's going to have to be a LOT of correcting going on...
>
>Seriously, though, the above paragraphs would imply prior art, wouldn't they?
>
In one of the books or interviews that Dennis Ritchie gave regarding the
origination of
the name UNIX he made the point that the engineers told the lawyers at AT&T
that the
name was UNICS (a pun on MULTICS) and it was mis-heard by them as UNIX. They
apparently
were so hot to get the name trademarked that they rushed the application
through without
ever going back to the engineers. When Dennis and company heard about the
mistake they
thought it so amusing that they adopted the revised name.
Of course this may be an urban legend, but if it is true then your not going
to find
any prior art. Misuses of the name, sure, but it takes a tremendous amount of
neglect
of a company trademark before the company loses it. AT&T certainly has a
history of use
of the name UNIX in various marketing materials so I doubt that simply citing
a bunch of misuses
of the name would be sufficient grounds to disqualify the trademark.
Certainly The Lawsuit filed btween AT&T and UCB displayed an attempt by AT&T
to defend
use of UNIX because as I understand it, BSDI was drawn into the battle due to
a marketing
campaign where they used 1-800-ITS-UNIX on a phone number.
Ted Mittelstaedt tedm@toybox.placo.com
Author of: The FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide
Book website: http://www.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com
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