Microsoft Forces wxWindows To Rename

Peter Millerchip writes "Apparently Microsoft have forced wxWindows, the popular cross-platform C++ GUI library, to change its name to wxWidgets over the UK trademark of the seemingly generic word 'Windows.' Hot on the heels of the MikeRoweSoft.com incident, you have to wonder if their overactive legal team will be targetting double glazing manufacturers next?"

Comments

Re:It's a better name anyway

[Anonymous Coward]

If it were only a set of window class wrappers, I'd agree with you, but wxWindows is more like MFC which provides an OO base set of classes that contain a broad spectrum of functionality, not only windowing.

Prior Usage

[Ianoo]

You know, long before Microsoft ever created Windows, I remember both Macintosh and the other GUI systems being described as "WIMP", or "Windows, Icons, Mouse and Pointer" systems. Surely this use of Windows represents a clear prior usage of Microsoft's supposed trademark to describe what were very similar products? Can you still trademark terms that have been used before? IANAL, but it would seem like a pretty silly idea.

Re:Prior Usage

[Rysc]

WIMP stands for "Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointer." 'Mouse' would be redundant, given that it's the same idea as 'pointer'.

Re:This is retarded

[__past__]

You remember wrong. "X Windows" is incorrect, but so is "The X Windowing System". From the X manpage:

The X consortium requests that the following names be used when referring to this software:

• X
• X Window System
• X Version 11
• X Window System, Version 11
• X11

Waste of time debating right or wrong

[presearch]

Although it may be an interesting discussion on what's fair and what's not,
it's all a moot point. If you have enough money, you can shape the legal
system in any way you see fit. This isn't insightful, or interesting, and
certainly not funny. It's just the sad truth.

Besides, anyone with enough power and money to be involved with
the decision making in Microsoft's predatory affairs almost certainly
has shares of MSFT in their portfolio.

Microsoft isn't a bunch of sharks, they are the ocean we all swim in.
Sucks, but that's how it is.

Re:Office next?

[Dave2 Wickham]

I'm not a trade mark lawyer, but this page seems to imply that there's no need for the word "Microsoft" to be used...

Re:Phew, it's hot in here

[jc42]

BTW, if you think I was just joking, google for "the THE operating system". Right now, there are 418 hits. A few are typos, but most are about the THE OS itself.

But the attempt to register "THE" was, as I recall, reported as a bit of geek humor. Apparently the USPTO got the joke, laughed with them, and turned them down. But there's a serious question of whether their examiners would get it today.

You might also want to google for "English programming language". There are fewer hits, and most are just uses like "English programming language instruction". But a few are about the programming language, a dialect of SQL.

The headline is misleading.

[Talonius]

I'd like to see the correspondence with Microsoft in this case. The wxWindows, er, wxWidgets team seemed to think it was a better idea to cooperate - forcing would be to actually sue them and deliver a, what was it, 75 page explanation?

The team would've won the trademark suit IMHO, but IANAL and the SCO case should've been about finance fraud a long time ago - so take my opinion with a grain of salt. In any case as a cross platform UI toolkit the name fits better.

As it is perhaps this took place as a polite exchange. Especially considering that the wxWidgets team had to know the groundswell of support they would have if Microsoft DID force the issue. There's nothing wrong with a company asking someone to do something; there's only something wrong with that when they sue someone to force them to do something that's inane.

Flamebait Disclaimer: I use Microsoft products as much in a day as I use Linux. I use what's best for the job at the time I need it done. I'm not screaming that people are being hypocrites; I'm saying that the situation might very well be completely different than what this article seems to assume.

The only time Microsoft will truly piss me off is when they decide to go after Mono. That will have me up in arms whether it's effective or not.

Re:This is retarded

[orthogonal]

I can actually understand the case against Lindows to some degree, because Lindows is a name that might confuse consumers. wxWindows, however, is a tool for developers.

You'd understand it better if the Slashdot headline were not misleading.

The Slashdot Headline reads (emphasis orthogonal's): "Microsoft Forces wxWindows To Rename", but the notice in the wxWidgets.org page says (emphasis orthogonal's) :

After a polite request from Microsoft, and a lot of thought on our part, we have decided to change the project's name to wxWidgets.... There will be modest financial compensation, of which the residue (after fees) will be used to fund library development and tools. Contributors can submit claims to Julian Smart to compensate for time lost because of the name change.

Now, this is not to claim that Microsoft didn't suggest they'd litigate if a voluntary change wasn't made; I'm sure that threat was at least implied, if not explicated. But the actual resolution has money going from MS-Windows to wxWidgets, not damages going from wxWindows to MS-Windows.

So if wxWidgets is willing to call it voluntary, I'm going to take wxWidgets at its word.

Re:The phrase `Windows` wasn't coined thus null

[TrevizeNet]

I believe a better analogy would be Escalator. I know I was in my late teens before I knew that an Escalator was at one time a trademark and not a name for a class of transportation devices.