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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?"
I think I might have to open some wind^H^H^H^Hframed glass panes attached to hinges!
Seriously... this trademarking of generic words is just silly. Is someone going to trademark the word "The" next, so no company name can contain it?
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. Developers developing applications for windowing environments, people who very well know the difference between Windows(tm) and a windowing user interface. Joe Avg will never encounter the name.
I guess X is next.
Because that's what they generate - program windows.
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
...you have to wonder if their overactive legal team will be targetting double glazing manufacturers next?
Or Office for that matter! This whole discussion makes no sense whatsoever. Windows as a word does not infringe, unless it is accompanied by the word Microsoft.
It's like McDonalds sueing every fastfood-place in the world for using the words Milkshake or Hamburger.
wxWidgets sound stupid, like something for VB toy projects.
Legally speaking, there should be no reason wxWindows should need to change their name, because they do not compete with 'the' Windows; indeed, wxWindows uses Windows APIs -and others as well- to create display elements called 'windows' (by which name they were known when MS was still DOS.)
Marxist evolution is just N generations away!
What about X Windows? Thats clearly a common phrase (seeing as everyone says "X Windows" and the X people say its not "X Windows". What about the fact that wxWindows isn't even remotely a competing product with MS Windows. And the fact that people called multitasking GUIs windowing systems before microsoft came up with Windows.... I'm gonna go out on a linb and say thats why they called it Windows.
:)
I think they are just upset they don't have a cool name like "Linux" "BSD" or "OS X"
Goal: Make your product name a part of everyday language
Analogy: Vacuum cleaner; Hoover
Reaction: Legally acknowledge (or prove as hopefully it has been done) that the word is in common use and so is not used as a valid company name or product.
i.e. The word Windows means Windows like it always did. We have double the power here because the word wasn't invented
A blog I run for the wealth
Hmmm, tough choice: get into a legal battle to keep the name "wxWindows" and spend a lot of money, or change to "wxWidgets" and get "modest financial compensation" from Microsoft?
Except originally that software was called "Productivity software" and I don't recall a successful productivity software suite before Microsoft Office 6 back in the mid-nineties. Until then, you just had to buy all the programs separate and they didn't work alike, and they sure didn't work together.
So in that sense, calling is "office suite" is really just co-opting the brand name for the generic use, ala Kleenex. The term just didn't exist before Microsoft Office.
they did this willingly after polite discussion - no lawsuits involved. Microsoft is also going to provide them some funding for further development and to point to their domain for a year or so.
To celebrate the occasion of my 1000th post, I will post no more forever on Slashdot. Goodbye.
What would you expect in a portable Windowing system? The fact is, the concept of defining a 2D area defining a program's visible space as a window isn't something at all unique to MS Windows. Nor is MFC an original idea. It's just an extension of procedural into the OO world. Do you think X Window System should change its name too? Should Apple make sure all their docs do not use the word "window(s)" just in case? Should Open Office stop being made because there's MS Office?
Microsoft, probably as a result of marketing, decided to use the most colloquial name association it could fine for its products for the most part. The fact that they were a late comer to such markets only worsens their claim. If Microsoft wants to use a generic term to describe a product, they should be only able to trademark "Microsoft ". This all reminds me of an episode of Freakazoid where "Lord Bravery" tried to get a ton of people to rename their businesses because each had to chose a different name because of such widespread trademarks. "Lord Bravery" vs "Lord Bravery Bakery"...cause people are too stupid to tell one rescues people and the other makes muffins, so we should ban similar naming? Let's not even begin with the whole *Win* *Zip*. Double whammy there.
Eurohacker European paranoia, gun rights, and h
Actually the name of the operating system was always "MSDOS". I also think the word processor was originally named "Microsoft Word", and the flight simulator "Microsoft Flight Simulator".
I agree about "Office", "Windows", even if these are not the official names Microsoft certainly is trying to get them called that.
And "Windows Media Player" (not Media Player), though somewhat in-between, is pretty bad because it covers the whole area of any program that runs on Windows and plays media.