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Galileo Forced To Change Its name?

Posted by Hemos on from the the-joys-of-tradmark dept.

Kvasio writes "As several sites reported, the court of appeal in Munich (Germany) has ruled that EADS Astrium GmbH - a German unit of EU's satellite navigation local system could not name its products Galileo. Instead the Galileo International Technologies from Barbados was granted the name. Time to shift to "Copernicus navigation system" ?"

22 comments

  1. Finally by Pan+T.+Hose · · Score: -1, Troll

    Why did they name it after a heretic in the first place, if not to piss off religious people?

    --
    Sincerely,
    Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
    "Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
    1. Re:Finally by Snaller · · Score: 1

      They named it after a great scientific mind. Even the church eventually admitted they were wrong.

      --
      If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
  2. Mercator by jhdevos · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Would be my choice :)

    1. Re:Mercator by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except Mercator isn't the greatest projection. For 2D maps, yeah it's good, but we're dealing with the real world here. People will hopefully use this system near the poles.

      How bout EuroPS? The pun is a bonus :).

    2. Re:Mercator by patdabiker · · Score: 1

      I assume I wasn't the only one who didn't know who or what Mercator was.

      Per Wikipedia, he was apparently a big map guy. Coined the term atlas and encouraged the development of the first atlas. Map making and math were his things. I think it's rather obscure, but cool too.

  3. fp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    fp : this is just plain stupid ...... it's a name !

  4. They should just call it ... by dankjones · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    "Jesus Sucks"

    -- Antiestablishmentarianism ...YEAH!!!

  5. whos running this ship by jago25_98 · · Score: 1, Offtopic



    I am the ghost of that man who once walked. I curse thee capitalists

    --
    A blog I run for the wealth
    1. Re:whos running this ship by jdmetz · · Score: 1

      Why is this offtopic? Which do you think Galileo would rather have named after him, a global positioning system or a travel agency? It seems clear to me that the cooler tech lost the Galileo name.

  6. +5 funny by myukew · · Score: 1

    wow, we have like five posts here out of which 2 are "galileo was a heretic" trolls.

    Mod them funny!
    FYI: Not even the Pope himself believes that the earth is the middle of the universe...

    --
    See pictures of tits
  7. A bit about the company by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://www.cendant.com/about-cendant/ataglance.htm l

  8. How about... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Firebird?

    1. Re:How about... by BLAG-blast · · Score: 1
      Firebird?

      It's already taken, how about firefox?

      --
      M0571y H@rml355.
    2. Re:How about... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fred

  9. same person, another name by MySt1k · · Score: 1

    Why not Galilei ?

    --
    Doh !
  10. Kopernik by Madcapjack · · Score: 1

    Copernicus is Polish. Or did I miss the irony?

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    Logic, macros, and more
    1. Re:Kopernik by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Copernicus is Polish. Or did I miss the irony?

      There are different spellings. Copernicus, was born in Torun (in German spelling Thorn), and his family was part of the German speaking population (which was the majority at that time). So the original spelling of his family name is either Koppernigk or Kopernik, while he seems to have changed that later to the Latin spelling Copernicus.

    2. Re:Kopernik by Madcapjack · · Score: 1

      I wasn't talking about the spelling of Copernicus. I know that Kopernik is the Polish spelling. I assumed that Kopernik was culturally Polish though.

      --
      Logic, macros, and more
    3. Re:Kopernik by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      AFAIK he was, he even commanded defence of Torun against (much more bound with german culture) Teutonic Knights. He studied at polish university in Cracow. Definitely he knew German and Ltin, but also knew Polish and on many opportunities shown to be on that side.

    4. Re:Kopernik by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      AFAIK he was, he even commanded defence of Torun against (much more bound with german culture) Teutonic Knights. He studied at polish university in Cracow. Definitely he knew German and Ltin, but also knew Polish and on many opportunities shown to be on that side.

      His ancestry is German. But you are right, he swore loyality to the Polish king. The reason AFAIK was that he wanted to defend his area against protestant Prussia (himself being convinced Catholic).

  11. Ptolemy by erichill · · Score: 2, Funny

    This is a geocentric system after all.

    --
    Credo sim. - I think I am.
    1. Re:Ptolemy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Clever, but not very marketable. Most would not know how to pronounce it.