How not to get good publicity
You have to love what Sun is doing to Ted Neward. He's been a pretty tireless advocate of Java over the years, and Sun is after him (and gosh knows who else) for trademark infringement. Someone needs to beat these people with a cluestick :)
Comments
Here's Johnny with a Kleenex and he made a Xerox of the box.
[Patrick Logan] December 2, 2004 17:08:01.868
I don't know or care too much about this issue, but there is a long history of corporations "protecting their brand names" with a fine tooth comb. The problem as I understand it is that if the name becomes "diluted" by well-meaning friends then this also sets the precident for competitors or others to usurp the brand names.
Maybe Java isn't a brand name worth protecting. Maybe it is more valuable in other ways. But I think this is the concern.
This also includes the famous conflict between the Tonight Show / NBC and a mfgr of portable toilets. They called the toilets "Here's Johnny". Everyone wondered why get upset about the obvious lighthearted humor? Apparently they feared the loss of control over using that phrase to their own profit.