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What Will macOS 10.15 Be Called: Mammoth, Monterey, Rincon, Skyline, or Something Else?
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Following Apple's shift to California-themed names for its Mac operating systems with OS X Mavericks back in 2013, Apple appeared to take steps to protect a number of other California-related names by filing for trademarks under a series of shell companies intended to mask the true identity of the applicant.
All told, we identified 19 trademarks that were applied for under six different companies that all appeared to be Apple shell companies. Several of these names, including Yosemite, Sierra, and Mojave, have been used by Apple, while others have yet to be put to use.
Over the years, the trademark review process has played out for all of these applications, with most being subject to some form of back-and-forth between the applicants and examiners involving various approvals, denials, and suspensions. Even for approvals, however, owners are required to submit proof of the trademarks being used in commerce. This Statement of Use can be submitted up to 36 months after trademark approval, as long as the applicant regularly requests successive 6-month extensions to the original 6-month submission period.
With over five years having passed since the trademarks were applied for, many have now been abandoned, either at some point during the review process or through failure to provide proof of commercial use following approval. In fact, of the original 19 names that were included in the trademark applications, all but four of them have been either used by Apple or abandoned, with the remaining live applications being Mammoth, Monterey, Rincon, and Skyline.
Perhaps the most interesting one is Mammoth, which is likely related to Mammoth Lakes and Mammoth Mountain, a popular area for skiing and hiking in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Notably, the trademark application for Mammoth was just approved earlier this month after many years of delays and a suspension. It's seen quite a bit of activity over the past six months, with the applicant Yosemite Research LLC having made some changes to reactivate the suspended application and shifting the attorney of record on the application to be noted trademark attorney Glenn Gundersen, who has worked with Apple on a number of intellectual property issues in the past.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted the registration for Mammoth and published it for opposition in March. After receiving no opposition to the trademark registration, the Mammoth trademark was officially allowed earlier this month on May 7. It's certainly possible that the timing is a coincidence, especially since the activity appears to have been driven by deadlines set by the Patent and Trademark Office in its communications regarding the suspended application, but the fact that the trademark was approved just weeks ago after years of relative inaction certainly caught our attention.
Monterey, a historic city and popular vacation spot on the Pacific coast, has been one of the popular macOS name options among our readers, so many will be happy to hear that this one remains a possibility. The trademark was applied for by Asilomar Enterprises LLC in December 2013, but wasn't allowed until June 12, 2018. One extension to the Statement of Use requirement has been granted, and Asilomar will have until June 2021 to prove commercial use of the name, provided additional extensions are requested.
Rincon is a popular surfing area in Southern California, and a trademark on that term was applied for by Landmark Associates LLC. The trademark was allowed on August 2, 2016, and Landmark has applied for successive extensions for the Statement of Use, with the fifth and final extension having been granted in January of this year. As a result, Landmark has until August of this year to prove the Rincon name is actively being used, or else the trademark will be lost.
Finally, Skyline likely relates to the scenic Skyline Boulevard that largely follows the ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains running south from San Francisco, and Antalos Apps LLC filed for a trademark on the name in December 2013. The trademark was allowed on March 20, 2018, and the second Statement of Use extension was granted on February 28 of this year. The owner will have until March 2021 to prove use of Skyline in commerce, provided all necessary extensions are requested.
So what will macOS 10.15 be called? Will it be one of these four, or something completely different? Apple has drawn from the original list of trademark applications the majority of the time over the past five releases, but has selected something new a couple of times. One of Apple's presumed shell companies applied for a trademark on the name El Cap, but Apple opted to go with the famous mountain's full name of El Capitan for OS X 10.11, while 2017's macOS 10.13 High Sierra was positioned as a refinement of the previous year's macOS Sierra.
Article Link: What Will macOS 10.15 Be Called: Mammoth, Monterey, Rincon, Skyline, or Something Else?
How about "Death Valley"?
Just get an External $100 bluray writer to keep in the cupboard and bring it out those rare times you actually need one. You can use it on any of your Mac or windows devices then.
Hmm.. I kinda like the name "Something Else" I think it is unique and is way outside the box, anyone else?
Maybe they could be honest and call it macOS CASH GRAB with that Notarization feature added to eventually (when you least expect it) block open software that isn't approved by Apple.... Maybe that will be the version after this one, though.
Doh! You said it first. But, yes, we need to start a movement. Change.org. Vote now.
Darth Tulhu
macrumors 68020
Nice. Razer almost beat you to it:
https://www.razer.com/gaming-laptop...32.879451789.1559281389-1371576414.1559281389
But seriously, this would probably be my 2011 17" MBP replacement given Apple is providing NOTHING in this category.
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That's EXACTLY what I did!
Eight years and counting on my 2011 hardware.
Too bad they don't build them like they used to, though.
I have owned a lot of different computers using a lot of different OS systems. TRS-DOS for the TRS-80, Apple Dos for the Apple 2e, Amiga Dos for the Amiga 1000 and 3000, early versions of Linux, Unix, OS/2 put onto computers I built from parts using Computer Shopper, and of course MS Dos and then Windows. I switched to OS X in 2008. If there is a system that does what I want better and is more stable and isn't completely just data mining my information to sell to the highest bidder let me know. I don't think that there is a better system and I don't want to just make a side-ways move.
The fact is they most likely foresaw and now have the financial to back it up that the best bidder is... themselves. Remember SoundJam? As software to help you organize your music it has had almost no functional changes over the oast decade. EVERY "update" was solely about some new or changed category of what they can sell one. The origin of the GUI, as they did popularize, was the desktop metaphor. As such, they have actually gone backwards from OS 9. Now what I see them doing is almost using the OS as a kind of weapon to push more hardware sales... along with more and more evidence they are clueless about actual software design...
