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Apple Seeks Trademark on "OS X" By Itself
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Well, reading Guidelines for Using Apple Trademarks and Copyrights would be a start.
So "OS X is a registered trademark of Apple Inc." perhaps?
interesting. i remember when this came up last year, and people were wondering if apple would sell OS X for other hardware. i still don't believe that this will happen anytime soon
Apple is going to have fun trying to get their trade mark registered.
On the USPTO website, there's already another OSX registration. This trade mark was filed in 1988, and registered from 1989. OSX was first introduced from 1999 to 2001, so from the beginning Apple's use of OSX has infringed US TM 1571632.
Word Mark OSX
Goods and Services IC 009. US 038. G & S: COMPUTER OPERATING SYSTEM SOFTWARE PROGRAMS PRERECORDED ON DISKS AND TAPES. FIRST USE: 19831028. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19831028
Serial Number 73754982
Filing Date September 29, 1988
Published for Opposition September 26, 1989
Registration Number 1571632
Registration Date December 19, 1989
Owner (REGISTRANT) PYRAMID TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION CORPORATION DELAWARE 1295 CHARLESTON ROAD MOUNTAIN VIEW CALIFORNIA 940397295
(LAST LISTED OWNER) SIEMENS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION PRODUCTS LLC LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANLY BY CHANGE OF NAME, BY MERGER, BY CHANGE OF NAME DELAWARE 3860 NORTH FIRST STREET SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA 95134
--------------
For Europe, there is European Community Trade Mark E227280
UK case status: Registered
Classes: 09, 42
Mark text: OSX
Filing date: 01 April 1996
Publication date: 15 February 1999
Registration date:23 October 1998
Applicant:
MSX Licensing Corporation
2-14-3 Uchikanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan, 101-0047
Class 09:
Electrical communication apparatus and instruments; electronic machines and instruments and their parts and fittings; computer and its peripheral apparatus; computer program recorded magnetic disks, magnetic tapes and Rom cartridges; video game apparatus for commercial use; video game apparatus for personal use.
----------------------
Also, in Australia, OSX has also been registered in relation to software:
Australian Trade Mark : 474812
Word: Osx
Lodgement Date: 16-OCT-1987
Registered From: 16-OCT-1987
Date of Acceptance: 06-SEP-1990
Acceptance Advertised: 04-OCT-1990
Registration Advertised: 21-FEB-1991
Sealing Date: 12-FEB-1991
Renewal Due: 16-OCT-2018
Class/es: 9
Status: Registered/Protected
Owner/s: MSX Licensing Corporation
2-14-3 Uchikanda
Chiyoda-ku
Toyko 101-0047
JAPAN
Class: 9 Computers and peripheral apparatus therefor in this class; computer programs including those recorded on magnetic disks, magnetic tapes and Rom cartridges
On the USPTO website, there's already another OSX registration. This trade mark was filed in 1988, and registered from 1989. OSX was first introduced from 1999 to 2001, so from the beginning Apple's use of OSX has infringed US TM 1571632.
Word Mark OSX
Goods and Services IC 009. US 038. G & S: COMPUTER OPERATING SYSTEM SOFTWARE PROGRAMS PRERECORDED ON DISKS AND TAPES. FIRST USE: 19831028. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19831028
Serial Number 73754982
Filing Date September 29, 1988
Published for Opposition September 26, 1989
Registration Number 1571632
Registration Date December 19, 1989
Owner (REGISTRANT) PYRAMID TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION CORPORATION DELAWARE 1295 CHARLESTON ROAD MOUNTAIN VIEW CALIFORNIA 940397295
(LAST LISTED OWNER) SIEMENS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION PRODUCTS LLC LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANLY BY CHANGE OF NAME, BY MERGER, BY CHANGE OF NAME DELAWARE 3860 NORTH FIRST STREET SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA 95134
--------------
For Europe, there is European Community Trade Mark E227280
UK case status: Registered
Classes: 09, 42
Mark text: OSX
Filing date: 01 April 1996
Publication date: 15 February 1999
Registration date:23 October 1998
Applicant:
MSX Licensing Corporation
2-14-3 Uchikanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan, 101-0047
Class 09:
Electrical communication apparatus and instruments; electronic machines and instruments and their parts and fittings; computer and its peripheral apparatus; computer program recorded magnetic disks, magnetic tapes and Rom cartridges; video game apparatus for commercial use; video game apparatus for personal use.
----------------------
Also, in Australia, OSX has also been registered in relation to software:
Australian Trade Mark : 474812
Word: Osx
Lodgement Date: 16-OCT-1987
Registered From: 16-OCT-1987
Date of Acceptance: 06-SEP-1990
Acceptance Advertised: 04-OCT-1990
Registration Advertised: 21-FEB-1991
Sealing Date: 12-FEB-1991
Renewal Due: 16-OCT-2018
Class/es: 9
Status: Registered/Protected
Owner/s: MSX Licensing Corporation
2-14-3 Uchikanda
Chiyoda-ku
Toyko 101-0047
JAPAN
Class: 9 Computers and peripheral apparatus therefor in this class; computer programs including those recorded on magnetic disks, magnetic tapes and Rom cartridges
See the details of my post. The conflicting trade marks are at least in the US, UK/Europe and Australia.
its registered in Japan
under:
Electrical communication apparatus and instruments; electronic machines and instruments and their parts and fittings; computer and its peripheral apparatus; computer program recorded magnetic disks, magnetic tapes and Rom cartridges; video game apparatus for commercial use; video game apparatus for personal use.
Do i see operting systems? no. So apple could Copyright OS X under operating systems trademarks in Europe.
There also was a conflict over OS 9, which was a well-recognized OS brand before Apple used it, yet Apple blasted ahead anyway and won the resulting court case, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS_9#Name_conflicts_and_court_decisions
And wasn't there also a similar controversy over the iPhone name?
its registered in Japan
under:
computer program recorded magnetic disks,
Do i see operting systems? no. So apple could Copyright OS X under operating systems trademarks in Europe.
An operating systems falls within the scope of the broad term "computer program", although in your above example, it's unclear whether there's a comma after "computer program", or is it "computer program recorded magnetic disks"
Probably looking to combat pirates. People like Blackbeard and Jack Sparrow have to be quite the threat to Apple.
Seriously, I'm surprised OS X, OS Ten, OS 10, Mac OS Ten, and Mac OS 10 are not already trademarked to prevent copycat products or confusion among products.
They should be already covered. Since using them would cause confusion amongst consumers, they are already protected under trademark law.
Link: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/metaschool/fisher/domain/tm.htm
That's because, quite obviously, they are very slowly pulling out of the traditional computer business. They already make most of their money with gadgets and online stores for digital content - less development costs, higher profits. The Mac hardware unit is a dead end for Apple.
I think by Dropping the Mac Name is just so you can market the OS as more Universal.
Mac OS X runs on devices that are not Macs.
iPhone, iPod touch, apple TV. So saying it runs OS X is more universal then Mac OS X as the above items are not macs.
Mac OS X runs on devices that are not Macs.
iPhone, iPod touch, apple TV. So saying it runs OS X is more universal then Mac OS X as the above items are not macs.
And why is the letter 'X' not an icon? Did it occur to you that 'X' also relates to the fact that "OS X" is derivative of the NeXt OS? Not surprisingly, MS abandoned ME in a big hurry - their marketing team, determined not to be out-branded by "OS X," may very well have decided to find a way to include an 'X' in the branding scheme of their competing OS, despite the so-called xPerince they were pushing at the time.
I don't understand why they call it "OSX iPhone" when it's going to be used for far more than the iPhone itself. Wouldn't "OSX Mobile" be more appropriate?
That would be a great idea now, but I don't believe they intended to be as full featured initially. I could see a re-branding to OSX mobile in the near future.
Wow, I bet there are a lot of companies out there who would love to be burdened with such a dead end.
Anyway, do you have a source for the assertion that Apple makes most of their money with gadgets and online stores, as well as the "less development costs" thing? I'd say there was probably a fair amount of cash sunk into the development of the iPhone. And remember, OS X development also represents part of the R&D cost for the iPod Touch and iPhone now too so you can't cleanly separate the gadgets from the Mac side of things. I'm wondering how you figure those things are more profitable and less expensive for Apple to develop.
it could be to do with psystar clones
it says in the EULA that Mac OS X needs to be installed on an "Apple Labelled" computer.
"OS X" on the other hand could allow apple to release OS X as a user installable operating with "OS X certified" components or something along those lines.
Lets face it, if you want an iMac you get a LOT for your money, if you want a Mac Pro, you can start looking at building it yourself.
They'd probably start putting some kind of copy protection on the OS install DVDs but who cares if it means the "OS X" market share continues to increase whether apple are selling 100% of the hardware running it.
Remember "PC" used to simply refer to "IBM Compatible PC", OS X give apple the branding but doesn't limit it to their own hardware.
it says in the EULA that Mac OS X needs to be installed on an "Apple Labelled" computer.
"OS X" on the other hand could allow apple to release OS X as a user installable operating with "OS X certified" components or something along those lines.
Lets face it, if you want an iMac you get a LOT for your money, if you want a Mac Pro, you can start looking at building it yourself.
They'd probably start putting some kind of copy protection on the OS install DVDs but who cares if it means the "OS X" market share continues to increase whether apple are selling 100% of the hardware running it.
Remember "PC" used to simply refer to "IBM Compatible PC", OS X give apple the branding but doesn't limit it to their own hardware.
I agree, I see baby steps first like publishing a HCL as MS did with NT 3.5, enabling early-adopting home-builders and OEMs to start sharing the burden of compatibility testing.
I can image SJ chuckling himself to sleep with visions of "replacing every MS PC on every desk with OS X"