Linked by Eugenia Loli-Queru on Wed 11th Jun 2003 21:39 UTC
Apple Computer is being sued by The Open Group, the San Francisco company that claims ownership of the Unix trademark, for using the term Unix in conjunction with its Mac OS X operating system without a license. Apple has countersued, asking a judge to declare that the trademark is invalid, because the term Unix has become generic. This legal battle, though separate from SCO's recent claim that Linux uses copyrighted Unix source code, adds further fire to the debate over the custody of Unix--the 30 plus-year old OS originally developed by AT&T.
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Firstly, this case was started a while back. The SCO flap has nothing to do with it except in regards to the pathetic media. For pathetic media types, they are like: "oo, a Unix story... People like to bash Apple... Let's light this one up again even if no one has given a crap for the last year."
Okay, now, as far as I understand, Apple conforms to the Unix spec.
They do not conform to the Unix API spec.
Apple has no interest in claiming to be a Unix (it doesn't offer the clout that it does for enterprise apps like AIX, Solaris, etc...) They do not want to have to undergo testing everytime they change the OS. They do not want to include the Unix APIs. There is no reason to. But, they are trying to promote the strengths of Unix.
Clearly, Unix does have a generic application. Clearly the OG hesitated for some time re: Apple. THe osopinion article states their own position as enforcing when they feel the name is used counter to their intentions... well, guess what: that's bad trademark enforcement! They've got to enforce it all the time, no matte what. They can't accept the good sometimes and litigate the ones that are iffy.
Since being granted the trademark is predicated on testing that Apple doesn't want to conduct, why should Apple participate.
The only problem I see with Apple's position is when they say they are the largest vendor of Unix, and such. As long as all of the materials and references are to Unix-based, based on Unix technologoies, etc... I see nothing wrong.
But it'll be interesting... Maybe Apple can invalidate the UNIX trademark the way I hope that Lindows can invalidate Windows.