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.

Comments

I would have loved to see them hold their ground

[Masem]

By all accounts, XBOX the company had every right to the XBOX name, and beyond tossing as much money as they could at XBOX, MS could do nothing about it legally. I would have loved to see XBOX hold rock solid against MS, and watch the antics as the MS engine rapidly tried to pull another name from it's magical hat, probably hurting both their PR value and market value as the next generation of consoles comes out this Christmas. But even I would be daunted by having probably millions pushed in my face just to change the company name.

win/win/win situation

[joq]

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.

The American Dream

[Violet Null]

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'm glad that was resolved...

[briggsb]

I had been losing sleep over it for days. However, I'm more worried about Microsoft getting control of all the .NET domain names.

Way to applaud XBox Tech for domain squatting.

[dave-fu]

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.

Re:Way to applaud XBox Tech for domain squatting.

[CaseStudy]

That's not domain squatting, unless you have more information than you're sharing. Buying a name nobody else is using as a trademark with the intent to use it isn't squatting, even if you later decide you want it.

spare me

[joq]

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.

Holding their ground

[laertes]

How many people here said that they should have held their ground, and not sold the name? I thought so. But consider this, if they have any shareholders, and they don't take a deal like his, then they'll probably be liable for a shareholder's suit.

But this is slashdot, and we don't like to think about business, except Sony and Nintendo.

Re:Ferraris

[Psiren]

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 ;)

Addendum

[3ryon]

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.

Re:Yep, Next MS will have to pay US Robotics for "

[Anonymous Coward]

According to an inside source, Microsoft is considering naming the next generation game box:

• Coca Cola
• TiVo
• Formica
• Linux
• Cowboy Neal

Favourite quote

[Dr_Cheeks]

"It was a very, very mutually satisfying agreement," said Robert Koolen for Knowledge Mechanics, a computer-based education company that is the main holder of XBOX Technologies. [my emphasis]

Man, I hope M$ decide to call the next major product they release in the UK the Club-Foot : )

Interesting...

[ryanw]

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.

Interesting ... 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.

Here's the link to see the price of their stock ...

http://quotes.nasdaq.com/Quote.dll?page=multi&mode =Stock&symbol=XBOX

Re:I would have loved to see them hold their groun

[miracle69]

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!

Re:Funny

[babbage]

No no no, that's not it. Microsoft, wise multi billion dollar company that they are, forgot to pay their $35 fee to renew the hotmail.com domain name, thus disabling the service all at once on Christmas Eve, 1999. A guy named Michael Chaney realized what was going on, paid the fee, and went about his business. Microsoft sent him an unsolicited check for $500, but he refused it -- putting the check they sent him up for sale on eBay and promising to give whatever proceeds from the auction (and matching up to $2000) to a charity of the winning bidder's choice.

The links about it are still available online -- Slashdot played it's role in events.

• Slashdot reports that Hotmail is out of service, 24 Dec 1999
• Slashdot report on auction, 18 Jan 2000
• C|Net coverage of the auction, 18 Jan 2000

XBox name by itself

[ackthpt]

The pity is, it's such a lame name. It reminds my of that Simpson's episode where they tried to create a hip, cool, new attitude character for Itchy and Scratchy, according to all market research it should have been a success, but predictably flopped.

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

--
All your .sig are belong to us!

MS did this before

[Alien54]

They had a similar problem with the product name 'Internet Explorer"

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

Re:Ferraris

[malfunct]

Its funny that you worry about the XBox company selling out to MS when from the articals on the page XBox is a company thats all about asking other companies to sell out to them. XBox is an aquisitions company and you can only imagine how evil and cuthroat they are. Looks like thier purpose on life is to run around looking for floundering companies with potential and buy them up for rediculously cheap prices before they blow up and become something big.

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.

Those who have a clue don't name things X.

[Futurepower(tm)]

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.