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Apple Seeks Trademark on "OS X" By Itself

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Apr 12, 2001
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AppleInsider dredged up 6 month old trademark applications by Apple indicating that they were seeking trademark protection for the term "OS X" without the word "Mac" preceding it.
The Cupertino-based company initially filed for its trademark in Trinidad and Tobago less than a week after the June 2008 conference, where lobby banners first indicated a split where Apple would distinguish between OS X Leopard, the version of its operating system for traditional computers, and OS X iPhone, the modified platform that supports both its namesake cellphone and the iPod touch.
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The filing is not particularly revealing as it's been clear since WWDC that Apple has been separating out OS X into "OS X Leopard" and "OS X iPhone". It simply reinforces the fact that Apple has applications for OS X outside of the Mac platform.

The U.S. trademark for the "OS X" term was filed in November 2008.

Article Link: Apple Seeks Trademark on "OS X" By Itself
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2009/01/15/apple-seeks-trademark-on-os-x-by-itself/
Why'd they file this in Trinidad and Tobago? I'm sure it deals with easier/cheaper ways to file trademarks, but that location is interesting.
 
I've always thought of the "mac" part in "mac OS" as a part of the brand (macintosh), and not related specifically to the platform...
 
Maybe they'll start referring to it as OS X (pronounced oh • ess • echs) and keep the numbering going past 10. Instead of the correct current (oh • ess • ten) pronunciation.

Because after all, this OS can be easily turned up to 11. ;)
 
Umbongo said:
Because soon they'll be at 10?
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Not really. They're just now finishing up on Windows 7. And besides, they could always call "Windows 10" something else, as they did with Windows 4, Windows 5, Windows 5.1 and Windows 6.

Not to mention that "Windows 10" and "OS X" look and sound nothing alike. You can't trademark or patent numbers. It's been tried and has always failed.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5G77 Safari/525.20)

This is an interesting move by Apple. I wonder if there is something to speculate on about this or if it is simply to have the "OS X" trademarked for purposes of the iPhone version and the Mac version.
 
Quillz said:
Not to mention that "Windows 10" and "OS X" look and sound nothing alike. You can't trademark or patent numbers. It's been tried and has always failed.
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You apparently can't patent or trademark colors, either.

I remember when Blu-ray was actually Blue-ray and not a misspelling on forums (this was LONG before the format war ever began).
 
Somehow I doubt MS would call their 10th operating system OS X. They'd really be scraping the bottom of the barrel at that point.

I can imagine Pystar being more of a worry.

Tallest Skil said:
You apparently can't patent or trademark colors, either.
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Not strictly true. Cadbury owns a trademark for the colour purple for the way they use it in the confectionery industry.
 
Tallest Skil said:
You apparently can't patent or trademark colors, either.

I remember when Blu-ray was actually Blue-ray and not a misspelling on forums (this was LONG before the format war ever began).
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Correct. Last time I checked, you can't trademark or patents common words, colors or numbers. The only exception is if an otherwise common word, color or number is being used into a phrase or product name. So, while Apple could trademark the whole "OS X" phrase, they could never just trademark "OS" or "X."

wetrix said:
Somehow I doubt MS would call their 10th operating system OS X. They'd really be scraping the bottom of the barrel at that point.

I can imagine Pystar being more of a worry.
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No, they'd call it "Windows 10" or something else.
 
Sijmen said:
I always thought the OS on the iPhone was called iPhone OS.
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It was originally, now Apple seems to officially refer to it as "OS X iPhone."

I think the whole idea now (obviously) is that Apple built what they call OS X, their platform. From their, it's been ported to the Mac (Mac OS X) and the iPhone (OS X iPhone.) If Apple was to build an entirely new product that needed a new OS, they'd like port it to the device as well and call it "OS X [name here]." That's why I think this attempt to trademark "OS X" is rather significant. Could be an indicator of upcoming products.
 
fendol said:
They want to trademark everything they own into oblivion...
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Thats only cause of Redmond.
 
dizastor said:
Maybe they'll start referring to it as OS X (pronounced oh • ess • echs) and keep the numbering going past 10. Instead of the correct current (oh • ess • ten) pronunciation.

Because after all, this OS can be easily turned up to 11. ;)
Click to expand...

OS X 10.9
OS X 10.10
OS X 10.11
etc. :)

It's not a physical quantity, it's a version number. Sometimes they even have two dots, so they can certainly keep going as long as they want with the X brand.

But I've always thought they should do away with the redundant "10." So Leopard should be "OS X.5" for instance.

Or they could stick the word "version" in. Snow Leopard could be OS X version 6. But 10.0 was the first OS X, so Snow Leopard will be the 7th. (And the 17th version of Mac OS.)

I think "OS X version 7" would be catchy. It would also make Microsoft feel like they weren't so far behind when their "7" emerges 2 years later.

Lastly, I liked the term "Touch OS X" better than "iPhone OS" (which makes little sense on an iPod Touch).
 
Quillz said:
Actually, no. It's because of trademark laws. The idea is you trademark most of your ideas as soon as possible, and then defend them. A corporation that fails to products its products via trademarks can lose the rights to them.
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yes i know but being ocd and trademarking ANYTHING and EVERYTHING is cause of msft
 
nagromme said:
OS X 10.9
OS X 10.10
OS X 10.11
etc. :)
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This makes sense. When Apple first announced Mac OS X, it seemed to have simply meant "Mac OS 10." But now it's clear that the "X" implies the new Mac OS platform. Since Apple officially refers to, say, Leopard as "Mac OS X 10.5," it's quite clear that "Mac OS X" is now a brand and not a version. So, I think at some point we will see a "OS X 10.10," etc.

techfreak85 said:
yes i know but being ocd and trademarking ANYTHING and EVERYTHING is cause of msft
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Well, they can try, doesn't mean everything will come to pass. But Apple isn't unique in this. Most corporations attempt to trademark nearly everything they make. It's good business practice, really.
 
Quillz said:
Well, they can try, doesn't mean everything will come to pass. But Apple isn't unique in this. Most corporations attempt to trademark nearly everything they make. It's good business practice, really.
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but it does seem that msft copys everything. so i can see why apple is especially ocd. aside from being a good biz thing...
 
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