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Apple Seeks Trademark on "OS X" By Itself

Oh great, now Apple will really need to start working on the hardware. There could be some current Mac users that switch back to a PC just for better hardware, and still being able to run OS X.

Also, this might attract people that want cheaper computers that run OS X. This could be a sign of future netbooks that Apple could still release.
 
techfreak85 said:
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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Not to mention, at the time of the introduction of OS X, MS immediately responded with XP, which they claim stood for experience. Of course, this was only a coincidence that the acronym XP featured the icon 'X' as well.
 
DMann said:
Not to mention, at the time of the introduction of OS X, MS immediately responded with XP, which they claim stood for experience. Of course, this was only a coincidence that the acronym XP featured the icon 'X' as well.
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Since when did the letter "X" become an icon? Now you're really just grasping at straws here. I guess any two products that happen to use the same letters of the alphabet are clearly rip-offs of one another. Furthermore, Microsoft used the "x" as a letter, as part of the "eXPerience" acronym. Apple used it as a numeral. "X" is the Roman numeral for "10."

The Macintosh computer is just a rip-off of the computer, because the Macintosh copied the "c" icon!
 
Apple should just call it OS "X" instead of OS "10". OS "X" sounds more distinct and cool IMO .
 
I think the real reason it's important is just to prevent someone else from selling an "OS X". I mean if technically the name of the mobile platform was "Mac OS X", that by itself wouldn't matter.
 
...just so you know...

Quillz said:
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.
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"So we decided to ship the Windows 7 code as Windows 6.1 - which is what you will see in the actual version of the product in cmd.exe or computer properties."

http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2008/10/14/why-7.aspx


DMann said:
Not to mention, at the time of the introduction of OS X, MS immediately responded with XP, which they claim stood for experience. Of course, this was only a coincidence that the acronym XP featured the icon 'X' as well.
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Also a coincidence that Apple used OSX after Microsoft had been shipping ActiveX and DirectX for so long ;) .
 
Quillz said:
It seems that way, but they don't. No more or less than any other high technology corporation does.
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Its pretty obvious that they do. If they didn't, everyone would have switched to a Mac by now because Apple has the best UI designers.

-Gadgets is almost a copy of Widgets.
-The Vista easy search under the start bar is just like the spotlight. (but much slower)
-Vista's photo browser has a very similar compared to iPhoto.
 
Quillz said:
It seems that way, but they don't. No more or less than any other high technology corporation does.
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Its pretty obvious that they do. If they didn't, everyone would have switched to a Mac by now because Apple has the best UI designers.

-Gadgets is almost a copy of Widgets.
-The Vista easy search under the start bar is just like the spotlight. (but much slower)
-Vista's photo browser has a very similar compared to iPhoto.

I know this isn't related to this thread, but it needs to be clear. MSFT takes a lot of Apple's ideas.
 
Snow Leopard to become "Mac OS X 7"? Just in time to beat Windows 7 to market? Nothing like a bit of version number inflation to match or beat your competitor I say!

That's X as in "Ecks" btw... and 7 because v1 = 10.0, v2 = 10.1, ..., v7 = 10.6.

Running Safari X 4, iTunes X 9, ... or not, hopefully.
 
alexbates said:
Its pretty obvious that they do. If they didn't, everyone would have switched to a Mac by now because Apple has the best UI designers.

-Gadgets is almost a copy of Widgets.
-The Vista easy search under the start bar is just like the spotlight. (but much slower)
-Vista's photo browser has a very similar compared to iPhoto.
Click to expand...

Search has been in there for a long time, it's just exposed differently in Vista, and personally I like Microsoft's desktop UI more than any other UI around. (Though I don't like Windows Mobile's UI)
 
alexbates said:
-Gadgets is almost a copy of Widgets.
-The Vista easy search under the start bar is just like the spotlight. (but much slower)
-Vista's photo browser has a very similar compared to iPhoto.
Click to expand...
Both widgets and gadgets are rip-offs of Konfabulator, which was first released in 2003, long before either Tiger or Windows Vista.

And Microsoft in fact invented Instant Search. Apple copied the idea, polished it and took it to market first. Microsoft released Vista after Tiger. There's nothing wrong with what Apple did, and it proves my point: this is an industry that constantly "borrows" ideas and improves upon them. Kudos to Apple for improving upon Microsoft's original model.

As for Windows Photo Gallery being inspired by iPhone, you're right. It is. And again, what's the big deal? It's made using Windows that much better. It's not as if iPhoto was the first ever image manipulation program.

I don't think copying an idea is bad. If no one ever copied anyone else, we wouldn't were we are today in terms of technology.

Anyway, sorry for getting off-topic. Let's focus back on Apple trademarking "OS X," not Microsoft. (It's my fault the thread got off-topic.)
 
BigTRQ said:
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.
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I posted the answer to this here: http://tinyurl.com/8nurhv

"...Recently Laws relating to Industrial Property Law have been amended and promulgated to provide a wider range of trademark protection in Trinidad and Tobago on behalf of the international community. The trademark registration in Trinidad and Tobago after being obtained guarantees the full right of the owners of trademarks and patents.”


Apple also trademarked the iPhone in Trinidad in Tobago back in 06:

"...Ocean Telecom (rumoured to be a front for Apple) will be granted acceptance of their iPhone trade mark. Ocean Telecom filed their trade mark application on 26th September 2006, claiming priority of 27th March 2006 from a trade mark application they claim to have filed on that date in Trinidad and Tobago”

- courtesy your friendly Trinidadian blogger :)
 
Quillz said:
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.
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I tried to make that argument years and years ago somewhere on the Internet (probably Slashdot) and nobody could see what I was talking about. I have long felt that "OS X" is the product name and there would never be an OS XI or OS XII or whatever. That's always made sense with Apple's version numbering system and with the way they market the big X on everything. Generally, the version number isn't the focus of marketing and branding when it comes to software so it never made sense to me that the "X" represented a version number.

Quillz said:
So, I think at some point we will see a "OS X 10.10," etc.
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I agree. That'll probably be around the time Microsoft releases Windows 7 SP 2. ;)
 
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. ;)
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Anyone that doesn't know that OS X is pronounced OH-ESS-TEN is an idiot and needs to go back to school and learn their roman numerals. So tired of hearing people deliberately calling OS X out of it's name.
 
inkswamp said:
I tried to make that argument years and years ago somewhere on the Internet (probably Slashdot) and nobody could see what I was talking about. I have long felt that "OS X" is the product name and there would never be an OS XI or OS XII or whatever. That's always made sense with Apple's version numbering system and with the way they market the big X on everything. Generally, the version number isn't the focus of marketing and branding when it comes to software so it never made sense to me that the "X" represented a version number.
Click to expand...
Well, like I stated, I think originally, it was fully intended simply to be "version 10" of the Mac OS. But then as they were later able to port to to other platforms like the iPhone, it turned more into a platform than just an incremental OS update.

It's confusing, so I think it makes most sense, as someone did earlier, to just drop the "10." part. Think of Mac OS X 1.0 being "Cheetah," Mac OS X 2.0 being "Puma," etc. Despite Leopard being branded a ".5" release, Apple stated it's really the sixth major release.
HLdan said:
Anyone that doesn't know that OS X is pronounced OH-ESS-TEN is an idiot and needs to go back to school and learn their roman numerals. So tired of hearing people deliberately calling OS X out of it's name.
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Agreed. It's really annoying hearing people say that it's "OS Ex." It's almost as annoying as hearing people call the iPod touch the "iTouch."
montycat said:
montycat said:
I thought UPS Brown (Pullman brown) was protected. MC
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That's a little different, because they're aren't patenting the color brown, just a very distinctive shade of brown. That's the difference. You are, as far as I know, able to trademark a particular shade of a color if you can prove that it creates a distinct product identity, as UPS did. If another courier company used another shade of brown that was quite obviously not the same "UPS brown," I don't think UPS would have a valid lawsuit.
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Speaking of school....

HLdan said:
Anyone that doesn't know that OS X is pronounced OH-ESS-TEN is an idiot and needs to go back to school and learn their roman numerals. So tired of hearing people deliberately calling OS X out of it's name.
Click to expand...

...perhaps you should pull out your English book and correct at least five grammatical errors in your post.
 
Ever since Apple started selling products other than Macintosh computers, it's been their challenge to sort out the public's perception of "Apple" and "Mac", not to mention the "i" names. The casual consumer doesn't always connect the names MacBook, OS X, Apple TV, and iPhone to a single company, and that's unlikely to be corrected without a long-term effort.

To keep up with Apple, we'll have to change the name macrumors.com to rumors.com, so we're sure to cover everything!
 
HLdan said:
Anyone that doesn't know that OS X is pronounced OH-ESS-TEN is an idiot and needs to go back to school and learn their roman numerals. So tired of hearing people deliberately calling OS X out of it's name.
Click to expand...

Not really. If you dont' follow this closely you'd have no way of knowing it's a number and not a letter. And the number doesn't really stand for anything.

I can see how it could be annoying for people though even though it isn't for me, as I get the "names on chalkboard feeling" every time I hear "iTouch". I always point out to them that Apple doesn't make the iTouch, it's be another company.
 
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