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OK, I realize that "most people" on the Internet have their own ideas about the term Unix. But what you've missed is that X/OPEN was formed specifically to prevent this sort of abuse of the UNIX trademark. Their ONLY rational for existence is to ensure that UNIX(tm) means a set of technical standards -- which Apple's largely archaic '80s OS design does not follow.

It wouldn't even be a big burden for Apple to get OS X qualified as UNIX, they just refuse to do because it's easier and cheaper for them to steal the trademark!

Linux(tm) is entirely different story because Linus proactively set a very low bar for licencing his trademark. http://www.linuxmark.org/ But he also has to deal with shitheads like VA Linux and LinuxWorld running amok.

You are supposed to register your use of the Linux trademark here:

http://www.linuxmark.org/

Cost is between $300 and $600.

I don't know how many people bother with this however because the Linux trademark has never been actively enforced.

Schwartz also seems to think "linux" is the generic technology name and "Linux" is Red Hat's name for it. Look through any of his older posts and notice "Solaris", "HP-UX", "Windows", "Java", but always "linux" unless he's talking about Red Hat. (In one egregious case, note "JDS/linux" alongside "JDS/Solaris" and "JDS/Windows".) He abuses the trademark whenever he feels like it. Wonder if he believes in IP belonging to Linux as well.

It's not like there's a "Linux Inc." entity

You mean like the Linux Mark Institute, the sublicensor of the LINUX® trademark?

True, don't you just hate it when companies register trademarks - first Microsoft, now NetBSD - next you'll know Linux will become "evil". Oh, wait...

Linux is also trademarked

(excerpt from that site)
Examples of Use Requiring A License.
On the other hand, if you plan to market a product or offer a service to the public using a mark that identifies the LINUX based product under a name that you consider your product name, like "Super Dooper Linux" or "Real Time Linux Consultants" you are required to apply for and obtain the low cost one time royalty license described elsewhere on this web site. This is true whether you actually apply for a trademark for your product or service name, because you are using the mark in a trademark sense, and it is important that the public know that LINUX is the base mark owned by Linus, and that the derivative mark you have adopted is your particular version of Linux.

Beside our need to protect the Linux mark for all of us in the industry, this process allows us to prevent improper uses of the mark that might eventually result in someone obtaining a trademark with the word Linux in it that suggests that they are the sole source of Linux or the sole authority to certify some aspects of use or training concerning Linux. For this reason we have refused to license marks like "Linux University" or "The Linux Certification Board."
(end-excerpt)

It's pretty reasonable for NetBSD to want the same protection from dillution for it's valuable brandname. And it's hardly the first open source OS to get it's name trademarked.

-cp-

In Korea a person tried making it his own trademark.
a Boston man tried taking control of it.
Microsoft Purchased it
although it's currently controlled by The Linux Mark Institute so Linus doesn't have to deal with it.

(see how I can't change my mind from one comment to another?)

I misread another (unlinked) article. I believe Linus is the sole owner of the trademark and the Linux Mark Institute is the actual entity responsible for defending the name, something they seem to do eagerly (so again, yes, the Linux trademark is actively protected). The Penguin, on the other hand, can be used without a license...

But Linux *is* a trademark, see linuxmark.org for details...

After considerable expense, and a gift of considerable legal resources and time by the law firm of Davis & Schroeder in Monterey, California in recovering the U.S. registered trademarks for Linux, Linus and his advisors concluded that the only way to protect the mark was to actively pursue the registration of it in a number of countries around the world and to maintain the U.S. mark in his name. To do so has required that we aggressively prosecute people who tried to register the name for their exclusive use in the U.S. and other countries, which we have successfully done in five countries. Should you become aware of other people claiming the exclusive use of the mark in other countries, please contact us at the address below.

So you could say it is a protected trademark in most countries. If someone else tries to trademark it, they will protect it aggressively.