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Phoenix To Change Name
e8johan writes "Phoenix, the Mozilla-based web browser, is forced to change name. The new name has not yet been decided, but it is being
discussed
. The reason is that the BIOS manufacturer
Phoenix Technologies
dislikes the trademark infrigment. Next week version 0.5 will be released, with a new name."
For example, I recently wanted to use a Camel on a Perl website (not completed yet) and I had to consult O'Reilly, since they have a trademark on associating a camel with Perl. Other people can use camels for whaterver they want, it's just that they have a trademark when using it in conjunction with Perl. See the FAQ for more info.
-- Sorry, I can't think of anything funny to say here.
and yes, it is a dupe.
I've NEVER seen a computer with Phoenix bios.
Heard of the "Award Modular BIOS"? That's a Phoenix BIOS as well.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Hate to tell you this, but trademarks are allowed to be _real words_, y'know. Just because stones have rolled for millennia doesn't mean you can expect to call the browser Rolling Stone.
BZZT! Wrong! You can call the browser Rolling Stone. You cannot however, start a band called rolling stone, or sell music under a label called rolling stone. When will people learn that a trademark is a narrow thing? Phoenix bios is a software product, like the-browser-formally-known-as-phoenix, so it's fair enough they complained.
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
This isn't a duplicate story but rather a follow-up, announcing that the Ph??n?x project is no longer "considering" a name change but has, in fact, decided to change its name. Should have been a Slashback.
Moral: Always do a first level trademark search before you decide on a name for your software package.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Phoenix BIOS's are mostly used by large OEMs, such as Dell, HP, Gateway, and others. They also purchased Award several years ago, so that covers a large number of makers in the motherboard business. Plus, Intel has always used Pheonix for their motherboard BIOS.
What's the relation between this browser and the products of that company? How can they force the name change?
:-P
I think Phoenix Technologies are most know for their Phoenix BIOS, but they also develop Phoenix FirstView Connect. After reading the product description, it takes no genius to see they're related in functionality:
"Phoenix FirstView Connect 3.0 is a powerful, complete software platform that enables digital device OEMs to introduce robust, interactive Internet functionality- as a primary or secondary function- into their consumer electronics devices quickly and affordably. Providing industry-leading, standards-based support such as HTML 4.0, CSS 2.0, DOM 2,0, Javascript 1.4 and Flash 4 with a small code size, FirstView Connect was designed specifically for the emerging Information Appliance market and is ideally-suited for adding new value to both traditional and next-generation digital devices. Having delivered value at the core of digital devices for the past 20+ years, Phoenix provides a flexible and extensible software solution that you can depend on now and in the future."
So you could say they also have a browser.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Nothing in Canada's trade mark law prohibit you to trademark a mythological name.
The Canadian Intellectual Property Office has a nice document resuming what can and cannot be trademarked.
How's this for a precedent:
"Whether a mark is sufficiently distinctive to be capable of being diluted is a similarly open-ended question, and a mark's position on the "spectrum" of distinctiveness will not be dispositive.81 Even well-known, inherently distinctive marks may be incapable of being diluted if there is extensive third-party use. Under this theory, Domino's Pizza, Inc., successfully argued that its mark DOMINO'S for pizza delivery services did not dilute Amstar's arbitrary and famous mark DOMINO for sugar.82"
Google turned up 6,190,000 matches for "Phoenix", btw.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
Phoenix *BIOS* has nothing to do with Phoenix *browser*.
n ne ct/default.htm
Check out this link:
http://www.phoenix.com/en/products/firstview+co
or patents, MUST be defended, or you can lose the trademark.
This is why you see so many Trademark infringement cases, they MUST be defended, or the owner risks losing the trademark.
Phoenix (the company) also make a web browser that runs on your BIOS. So there really would be two Phoenix web browsers, which would be confusing.
Neither is Ford, Cheverolet or R.J. Reynolds. These are all just people's names.
General Electric isn't a "custom" name in the tradition of Exxon and Acura either and both words are dictionary words.
"Bob's Hoover Repair Shop" wouldn't be a custom name either, being a combination of a common proper noun and ordinary dictionary words.
Perhaps more to the point would be the name of an actual veterinary clinic not far from my home: "Honest Bob's Pet Repair Shop."
I'd wager there isn't another Honest Bob's Pet Repair Shop anywhere in the world. This phrase, made up of nothing more than a common name and common dictionary words is a legitimate trademark.
Historically there has been no problem with this concept. The problem has only arisen recently when rich and litigously agressive companies seek to claim *ownership* of a word due the their holding of a trademark.
This is pure bunk. Honest Bob's Pet Repair Shop does NOT have the exclusive right to the use of the word "pet" or "shop" or "Bob's," even with regard to other veterinary clinics. Nothing in either trademark law itself or the history of litigation over trademarks implies that right.
The trademark is for "Honest Bob's Pet Repair Shop" * as a whole.* As a whole it is a "custom" name.
To complicate matters using particular art may be a mark. That is, in fact, why it's called a trade*mark* rather than tradename. A common lawyer trick is to trademark a particular word displayed in a particular *way.* This appears to be what Phoenix Technologies has done. They have invented a "custom" font for the word Phoenix and trademarked it. Such a mark does *NOT* confer exclusive rights to the *word,* only the graphic in the abstract sense.
That doesn't stop the lawyers from waving around their trademark registration on the graphic and claiming exclusive rights to the word the graphic contains. Have YOU got the $20,000 and 5 years it would take to fight them? They do. In their case it's their job.
In your case it's your life ruined. Guess who wins?
Trust me, the lawyers ( at least the good ones, there are crappy lawyers who actually haven't a clue about legal philosophy. Go figure) are perfectly aware of all of this. They know they don't necessarily have a case ( in this instance they might because both companies deal with computer software) but take these threatening tactics anyway. Their company hired them to trample the opposition and that's what they do.
It isn't the fault of trademark law.
If anything it's the fault of the damned Judges, part of whose job is to throw out obviously bullshit complaints, or at least deal with them in a fairly summary fashion. Nowadays pretty much every doofey complaint gets the full dog and pony show and just the pretrial fillings alone in such a case are enough to break the average Joe.
KFG
I guess you've never heard of Phoenix FirstView Connect.
This sounds like a strong case of infingement to me against the Phoenix (as in, Phoenix, the gecko based browser) developers.
That's right. It's called "firstview connect", and it actually runs an embedded Linux kernel (that's what the page says, anyway).
What are the chances of Phoenix (the embedded browser) to be actually based on Mozilla? I think Phoenix (the company) is right asking Phoenix (the project) for the name change, but they should do it very, very politely. Like an open letter asking to please change the name. Otherwise they'll look like a bunch of hypocrites when they go ahead and use Phoenix (the really good browser) in Phoenix (the BIOS).
You know, the name does get confusing when talking about this...
Wasn't Killustrator an obvious case of infringement?
Where Adobe has a vector based graphics program called Illustrator.
Where Killustrator is an open source vector based graphics program.
They could have called it Kill, and there would be no case for infringement.
Or they could have called it KVector. Or KPotato. Or Kantor. But they chose to call it Killustrator, which, remove the K, is a *trademarked* name. Now, if Killustrator was an open sourced Ogg Vorbis jukebox, there wouldn't be a problem because there's no way to confuse Killustrator Jukebox with Adobe Illustrator...
It's as if the browser was named PInternet Pexplorer. Hmmm.
Or if Microsoft made a game console called the Microsoft XPlayStation.
Hmmm.
GPL Deconstructed
It can and will cause confusion. Phoenix (bios people) is releasing a web browser. See here for details.
Military intelligence is almost always abbreviated by the use of the word intel. It is the information gathering and to a lesser degree processing related to military intelligence.
If one of their groups decided to write software using the "intel", I don't think that Intel would even stand up and take notice. Than again they are the US military and I don't think Intel would stand in their for a number of reasons.
abbr. MI
1. Information relating to the armed forces of a foreign country that is significant to the planning and conduct of another country's military doctrine, policy, and operations.
2. An agency of the armed forces that procures, analyzes, and uses information of tactical and strategic military value.