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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In responce to your first comment. You are a right to a degree, Coca-Cola is owned by the Coca-Cola Corp. However when a product name becomes so over-used that it becomes the "generic" name, the corporation may lose its right to that name. For example, a "thermos" was originally a product name, however it lost its trademark and is now a generic name, and anyone may make a thermos.
Xerox was in danger of losing its name a few years back, because "xerox" became a verb, ie. "i'm gonna xerox this document."
It is my belief that Apple may win its claim that UNIX has become so Generic that there is no trademark.
Just my two cents on the intellectual property law that applies.