Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Gets XBox Name
chewy_fruit_loop writes "The humorous situation Microsoft found itself in a few months ago regarding the X-Box name already belonging to someone, has been settled.
The BBC are reporting it here ,and XBox Technologies have this press release.
I wonder how much that cost Microsoft ;-)" Apparently The corporation formerly known as XBox is located like a half hour from here. Congrats guys! I expect to see you in shiny ferarris sometime soon.
Same thing happened when Ford spun off Visteon, and didn't check first to see if the name was taken. The little guy (a consulting firm in Florida, I believe) had to take it in the shorts. Same thing with X-Box. Don't these people know how to use Google? (FP, btw!)
Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals... except the weasel. -
... of registering the names Office2002 and Windows 2002 yet?
...
---
Living is a way of life
---
"The chances of a demonic possession spreading are remote -- relax."
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
I would have held out just for spite against M$. Well until they started flashing a lot of money. :-)
Microsoft.gov
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_U.S._Election_c
Not only did they probably make off with a hefty payment, but after looking at their company, I can't determine what the heck XBoxTechnologies actually does, so if they were headed for FuckedCompany.com, they could use the publicity of their name to actuall do something since their page lists squat other than some broad description of nothing.
Surprisingly no one is in an uproar type of posting mood claiming MS is bullying someone, so we all win here by not having to read the redundancies.
Want Root?
. . .and I'm curious to see what will leak out on exactly how much M$ paid them for the name...
At one point, it was to work hard, earn a fair amount of money, and then retire.
Then it was to join a rising tech company, work for a little bit, sell your shares after the IPO, and retire.
Now, it's to trademark a name that someone with big pockets, and lawyers who can't do research, will pay you gobs of money for, and retire.
I had been losing sleep over it for days. However, I'm more worried about Microsoft getting control of all the .NET domain names.
Damn...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Working for a start-up way back when (May-ish 1998), we decided that "XBox" would be the perfect name for our product (NDAs live on post-mortem, yadda yadda yadda). So I do the whois, find out they're registered, port scan them (is that legal anymore?) and find out there's not a single service up and running on their webserver.
I get in touch with the domain contacts and ask them if they'd be willing to part with the domain, seeing as how they're not doing anything with it.
To paraphrase, the response I got back was, "We have many exciting business opportunities planned for the near future for xbox.com, but we would be willing to part with the name for $10,000." Long story short, maybe that extra Sun box instead of that domain name wasn't the most prudent business move we could have made; thankfully, I had nothing to do with the business end, so I'm not losing any sleep over it. As for their claims, it looks like it took them a year and a half to get a single press release out; on Internet time where OpenBSD gets scolded for taking 6 f'n days to get a patch out, is that near future?
At any rate, I'm glad to see that domain squatting's bad, except when it happens to Microsoft and open source is good, except when Microsoft uses it, etc., etc.
Easy does it!
This comment has been submitted already, 276865 hours , 59 minutes ago. No need to try again.
Hopefully they were smart enough to ask for some percentage of the sales... That could help them out if the blow the big initial payout.
Something like 1/2% would get them $2.5/box, not bad to have a nice steady income like that..
Looking for any old 8-bit Heathkit/Zenith software/hardware - http://heathkit.garlanger.com
It would never happen. Just because Microsoft buys companies to benefit themselves mean little, if there was a company I would be worried about it would be something more like GeneralElectric.gov who has their hands in so much shit it isn't even funny. Business is business and MS is no different from other companies who purchase others, look at CitiGroup, why not make an uproar about them?
Posts like this may little sense.
Want Root?
how many people got fired over the whole xbox technologies thing?? Isn't there supposed to be a process when a name is picked? You go through trademarks, domain names, other incorportated entities in your target market...
"We are not tolerant people. We prefer drastically effective solutions"
But this is slashdot, and we don't like to think about business, except Sony and Nintendo.
Yes, I'm still a junky. Are you still a bitch?
When MS releases the next generation of X Box, they'd better not call it X2!
The reason they didnt do this was to avoid embarrasments. I guess that means they werent embarrased by the following events:
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
Sorry, but selling out is not attractive to a man of principle...
;)
No, but it'll probably get them lots of sex. Hmm.. tough call
Do you really think Gates cares about being set back a couple of millions (even 100) if that were the price to buy the rights to the name ? Moreover, I dont think MS would take a risk such as that, seeing how bad their PR already is. As far as I know/care, these guys got their Lamborghinis.
Rapid Nirvana
In other news, all employees of Xbox Technologies were found dead this morning. It seems that during a all-hands strategy meeting was held in a conference room which had a gas leak. Detectives are still puzzeled how the sales people who were teleconfrencing were also killed by the gas leak.
Kind thoughts do not change the world
Remember, this is M$ we're talking about. If the boys at XBOX decided to play hardball, it would only be a matter of time before somebody fished them out of the bottom of a lake or found them dead in a single-car "accident." Do the math: mega-corporations plus a "business friendly" presidential administration equals a threatening environment for "little guy" competitors. Microsoft would have killed these guys, and the Justice Department would sweep it tidily under the rug.
Money can buy you everything....
there are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots
It comes down to the quality of sex.
information is immaterial
--
--
Unscrample my email, win a prize.
Man, I hope M$ decide to call the next major product they release in the UK the Club-Foot : )
As part of the settlement, Microsoft will have all trademark rights to "Xbox," which is the name of Microsoft's new video game console system, and XBOX Technologies has agreed, in due course, to change its corporate name.
... this company (XBoxTechnologies) is publicly traded on Nasdaq as "XBOX". To change the name seems like it'll take quite some doing .. I guess MS musta' paid them all a very pretty penny.
...
e =Stock&symbol=XBOX
Interesting
Here's the link to see the price of their stock
http://quotes.nasdaq.com/Quote.dll?page=multi&mod
Instead of standing rock solid and getting no cash, how about calling up Sony and asking them how much they'd pay for the trademark....
Now that would've been cool.
HI Mom!
Linux - Because Mommy taught me to Share.
Gates: OK boys, buy 'em out!
[wanton destruction ensues]
Xbox: What happen?
Gates: You don't think I got rich by writin' a lot of cheques, do ya?
cheers,
mike
this man of principle is one boring arsehole then ;)
They're trading below a dollar a shoare, I don't think many people care what the ticker says, as long as it goes UP.
-bZj
prompt> finger Down8
Login: Down8 In real life: I am a Viking.
.sig
It's kind of obvious. They waited until MS can't back off on the X-Box name. So much time has been spent on the design (or so they say, the controller testing thing) that reinventing it to match a new name (and hence the removal of the big X from the actual machine, and changing of the controllers) would kill the release date.
These guys have also probably been planning this for a long time, considering the X-Box/ rumors of it and its name have been around for much longer then a few months.
However I can't fault them because considering they don't make- or do- anything, and without this nice bundle of cash they'd be closing up shop soon.
--------------------------------------
No sig for you.
The links about it are still available online -- Slashdot played it's role in events.
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
X-X-Box
A man of principle is unable to be bored. And whether he is boring to observe or not is a decision best left in the hands of another man of principle.
XBox shouldn't have sold out. But the past cannot be changed. Therefore, if you find yourself in the future being presented with a check from Microsoft... don't sell out. Be remembered for having standards, not for selling them to MS.
information is immaterial
Something that I think is worth considering, particularly for all you moral purists out there who are snootily insisting that this meaningless little business should have held the line and stood on principles, is that "X-Box" is a stupid name for a video game console and an even stupider name for a vaguely defined tech company. This is probably one of the best business decisions these people ever made...
It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries
Names Microsoft could have used:
Nintega 2600
Sonendo Games Station
Segtari ZX2
Supreme Extreme Intergalactic Game Playin' Machine! With Hip Graphics, Cool WiMP Sound, New Attitude Controllers!
Edsel
-- .sig are belong to us!
All your
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Name Last Change Volume
XBOX US$0.17 -US$0.05 32,4000
The funny thing about this was that had they not caved in to Microsoft, M$ would have been hosed big time!
actually they're running Win98 or NT on IIS... how's that for irony? linkage below:d e_w=on&site=www.xboxtechnologies.com&submit=Examin e
http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?mode_u=off&mo
------
Random, useless fact: I type in startx entirely with my left hand.
They should call themselves the TPFKAXBOX. The programmers formally known as the X-Box. :-)
| - Adam Sane
Adam Sane sanity is a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.
Nobody could confuse a dishwasher with an operating system. That's why you have Netscape Navigator and Lincoln Navigator, they're completely different. I don't know what Xbox does, but they're definately a tech company. That's too close to the console Xbox for MS to use the same name.
-B
-- .sig are belong to us!
All your
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Microsoft remains on target for a successful North American launch of its Xbox video game system on Nov. 8.
Thats not the target I remember, just back at E3 it was going to be like late september, or pretty close to that. The big deal was how Nintendo decided they we're not only release there shiznat a WEEK earlyer, but also for a 100 bucks less.
Anyone know what's up with them changing the date?
-Jon
this is my sig.
If Cowbow Neal is an option, this should be a poll.
Not selling microsoftsucks.com, yes, that would be standing on principle. Not selling "xthingie.com", that would be what we in the business call "stupid", especially since it's a fairly generic name that has no public recognition value for their company anyway.
Taking their money would be the best revenge. You can always give it to charity or use it to support your favorite open-source project.
The revolution will NOT be televised.
You can still download the original Sprynet (Non-MS) Internet Explorer at the Evolt.org browser archive, here
I recall that MS also had to settle with Synet (not Sprynet) on the name Interner Explorer. The original company went under, but was kept alive long enough by lawyers for some sort of settlement from MS. That story you can read about here, with added info here.
Then, these are the people who insist that "BookShelf" is not a generic term.
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
as much as i would have been amused by seeing the little guy screw over the dreams of the big guy, such a tactic would only have cost the little guy. the people who owned the name xbox probably made a good bit of scratch off this deal, and something tells me that they made more by selling the rights to the name then they would have made by using the name. microsoft stood to lose nothing other than the equivalent pocket change thrown at marketing people. remember nintendo and their 'ultra 64'? and how until just a few months before it's release it was called 'ultra 64', until somebody realized they had rights to that name and called them on it? nintendo then changed the name to 'nintendo 64' and years later most people don't remember the 'ultra 64' thing at all. xbox (the company) did the right thing, and they're probably all going on vacation right now because of it :)
"I hope I don't make a mistake and manage to remain a virgin." - Britney Spears
"I hope I don't make a mistake and manage to remain a virgin." - Britney Spears
M$ audited them for licenses and they didn't have enough, just like every company in the world that usese M$. So they made them a deal they couldn't refuse :)
Getting cash from MS just to change the name of thier company just fits in to thier plan. I love how you guys berate MS no matter what they do but when another evil corporation comes into view you think they are all good stuff. Blah.
"You can now flame me, I am full of love,"
Yes, it was a bad transition. The first sentance was a response to the Linux dishwasher post. The second sentance was my example of a browser and an SUV with the same name. I think the smart folks around here can figure out what I meant.
-B
What "principle" do you hold that says that it's wrong to sell a domain name?
I'd rather be lucky than good.
The reason nobody is posting anti-M$ is because M$ screwed up and had to layout some big cash to fix the problem...I wonder if the person that came up with the "brilliant" idea for the name Xbox is still employed..now if we can just find someone to port linux and a PS2 emulator to the Xbox it would be the icing on the be F-U cake.
I just hope they drive better than they manage their company! According to Yahoo Finance, their management effectiveness rating is -381.36 percent. Thats based on losses over earnings. Ouch! That and I can't believe they sold it to M$, why didn't they take it to Sony, Nintendo or even Sega instead?
--Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop. - Dr. Walter Gibbs
Microsoft has a difficult time hiring good marketing talent, apparently.
X is a name you use when you mean, "I don't know what." It is a symbol for the unknown. It's use as the name of a product causes the reader momentary confusion, not something you want in a trademark.
Besides, X-Box sounds like it is X-rated. There will be people who will think it is a porno appliance.
Bush's education improvements were
Actually, as an ironic sidenote to that comment. USR had to cease marketing "x2" products in Brazil as some company down there was already producing a product by that name. It was a tape drive or something like that. It only caused a little stress as V.90 was just about out by then so they pulled the product and did special packaging for that country only that did not mention x2, just V.90. Goes to show it is hard to find a name that is not used somewhere these days.
The only athletic sport I ever mastered was backgammon - Douglas William Jerrold
I would have loved to see XBOX hold rock solid against MS,
Hand[0]: Big fat juicy check with B. Gates' signature at the bottom.
Hand[1]: Smug satisfaction of burning M-Soft's corporate ass.
Err, I'll take what's on the check, Monty!
and watch the antics as the MS engine rapidly tried to pull another name from it's magical hat,
Like "HexBox" or "EcksBox" or X-Boss or S-Boxx or...
But even I would be daunted by having probably millions pushed in my face just to change the company name.
Daunted? Are you sure you didn't mean "sport major wood and drool like a baby sucking a lemon"?
I know I would.
kind of funny that MS is even paying off a company that makes its living buying out smaller tech companies... at least xbox tech. is up-front about it :)
-----
09
What a surprise that their case was thrown out of court...although not as big of surprise as when Apple Records sued Apple. Their argument was: "Apple computers have a mic-in port, they must be a record company."
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
And if you own the stock and don't want to sell it? Besides, if they wanna buy a flaming ship (stock price under .5 for several months) and shut it down, hey, great, cash for everyone, meetcha at Cheers in an hour.
(And we'll pick up those ferrari's tomorrow.)
Note that Xbox is a public company; their financial reports will undoubedly have a line-item indicating how much money they made from the sale of this trademark.
From the looks of things, they really needed the dough... they've only got $22k in the bank. Their stockholders didn't really apprciate this, however, seeing as their stock is down 13% today..
http://biz.yahoo.com/p/x/xbox.ob.html
Joel Hodgeson, the creator of Mystery Science Theatre 3000, made a revolving stage setup called an "X-Box" in 1997. A group of comedians performed a single show that was aired on Comedy Central and HBO. Here's the link : Joel and Jim Hodgeson's X Box
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
From their press release:
Oh... thanks. That, uh, really clears things up.
Even more dumb than the Apple Records suit are the conditions under which it was settled: Apple was not allowed, for a long time, to do anything on Macs that related to music. Apple's own lawyers maintained that to be safe they couldn't even use notes from musical instruments as the system "beep" options.
Some guy at Apple, fed up with this, put some kind of musical "toot" in the OS as a beep option. The sound file was named "Sosumi." So... sue... me... get it...?
With iTunes and all, I guess the terms of the Apple Records settlement are long dead. If Apple didn't have to avoid music technology for so long I wonder where they would have taken it by now?
NASDAQ requires listed companies to maintain share prices of at least a dollar. Yahoo says their symbol was changed to XBOX.OB, probably when they were de-listed from the NAS. The shares were trading at just under $5 in June of 1996, and have been on the decline since then.
Edith Keeler Must Die
Imagine a beowulf cluster of dead horses!
I hope M$ decide to call the next major product they release in the UK the Club-Foot
Didn't you steal it from Mr. Bean?
__
__
Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu
If anything Microsoft likely told XBOX Technologies that if they went to court
Microsoft would most definitely win in the long run because Microsoft has WAY more
money to spend on a lengthy court process than this company could even fathom. To
give you an idea of how much money Microsoft has, they spent half a billion just to
advertise their new console. I don't know about you but I think Microsoft used their
power and basically told them to back the hell off. I can't believe Microsoft would
give them a big fat chunk of cash other than the money they need to rename their company.
This whole episode reminds me of another dispute only on a nastier level. See: Bleem vs. Sony.
----
Capt' Trips
grep >= ! == $your
This is the quite of quick buck progress that makes me proud to have George W. as president and a congress that is acutioned off bienially. Take that, you euro-posers!
"one treats others with courtesy not because they are gentlemen or gentlewomen, but because you are" --G. Henrichs
Or M$ could rename their thing to ZBox. :)
I'm no punk bitch !!!
I thought the Brits were real sticklers for grammar. Guess not.
There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who know binary, and those who do not.
Hopefully X-Box Technologies doesn't make an operating system called QDOS :)
So they're an 11th hour investment corporation? *gasp*
God forbid that companies with potential, get bought or invested in when they absolutely postively need it most. If those floundering companies weren't bought, they would probably fail, and whatever "important" or "interesting" thing they were doing, wouldn't get done.
Is that a good thing? I doubt it.
I wonder if MS will ever get any people to change their names.
Wouldn't surprise me if we see more of that in the future, sold to us consumers, er, I mean citizens under the guise of tax relief **cough** bullshit **cough**. Look at all the public arenas, sports stadiums, and parks around the (Danger Will Robinson! US Centric terminology in effect..) country that have changed longstanding, and well known to the community names to some corporate name and cheesy logo/banner. In Indiana alone we now have the RCA Dome instead of the Hoosier Dome, and Verizon Wireless Music Center instead of Deer Creek Music Center. Granted, only the Hoosier Dome was built with tax dollars (that I know of, but it still makes even a libertarian like me want to vomit just hearing it. Have I seen my taxes lowered in any significant way? Fat chance. Not only do I not have a lower tax burden, but then the sports teams often use the threat of take-my-ball-and-play-elsewhere, essentially blackmailing us into subsidizing a bigger arena or whatever their whim-du-jour is if they don't get their way.
XBox Tech employees: They are supposed to pay us? D'oh!
A woman I met here told me the same story. She bought a computer, signed up for AOL, and immediately began getting about 30 porno messages a day.
So, the first thing she did every day was delete everything pornographic. To her, it was obvious that everything from Hotmail was x-rated spam, so she deleted it without reading it. She learned of her mistake when a friend called her and asked why she never responded to his e-mail.
I suggest that Microsoft should go all the way and call its new product HotBox . That way Microsoft could get back the 29 cents it spent for the name X-Box.
Bush's education improvements were
Pay them money!!?
Microsoft probably threatened to break their legs.
My associates tell me you have a little business named XBox...
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
I mean, a unix machines are traditionally referred to as 'boxes,' and I am running 'X' on this one, so my desktop workstation is an X-Box?
---
...I've had an Intellimouse (the optical kind) for over a year with no problems whatsoever. Light and weak plastic? Same could be said for the Logitech mice I've gone through in the past.
So it goes.
Easy does it!
This comment has been submitted already, 276865 hours , 59 minutes ago. No need to try again.
Light and weak plastic
I've indirectly "tested" the strength of both MS and Logitech mice (the "cheap" MS mice, as well as the "cheap" logitechs), as I have played Quake3 using both, and I used to have a nasty habit of bashing my mouse down on the table whenever I was losing badly. The Microsoft mouse usually can only take one single blow and they are permanently stuffed. Of the logitech mice, the first one I bashed probably between 30 and 50 times before it broke, and its still usable (it's just a little wonky when the mouse lifts off the mousepad). The second logitech has taken a couple dozen smashes and is still going strong. I've destroyed 3 MS mice in less than 5 smashes total.
If you had lots of money could by Visual Matrix's XBox for your MS Xbox. And then if couldn't afford the Xbox HDTV addon pack, you could convert your Xbox's RGB output to 1080p. What fun! Of course, the UBox may not be so useful.
like Ô or or ¦ and go "Prince" on everyone...
"Titanic was 3hr and 17min long. They could have lost 3hr and 17min from that."
IBM had PL/1, with syntax worse than JOSS,
And everywhere the language went, it was a total loss...
Why bother with a tempremental little italian??? prove you do the right thing and get a nasty Audi. Or perhaps a nice TVR... "A nerd in a pimp car just looks like a pimp who forgot to get dressed"
"Content thyself to be obscurely good. When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, the post of honor is a private sta
I understand now. I think there's a chain of sportswear shops called "Athlete's Foot" which is another disease.
About Japanese, I suppose that when yo go beyond the elemental you will find it can be as tricky as English (or any other fully developed language).
(And I agree that the flying in "Crouching Dragon,..." was unbelievable. They should have acted it as very big jumps, not running on the air.)
__
__
Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu