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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.
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!
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
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.
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...