So I’m sure I’m not the only person in the Ubuntu community who also owns an Apple product or 3. In turn, this means I’m probably not the only one who was interested to check out Apple’s conference yesterday, where they announced iLife ’11, new MacBook Air models and OS X 10.7 ‘Lion’.
Lion is where the interesting part lies, in that one of the new features is named ‘launchpad’ or ‘the launchpad’. Now what does this mean for Launchpad, the web application by Canonical? I don’t know…probably nothing. What I have seen is a lot of people commenting on what Canonical may or may not do.
Personally, I think that while Canonical do own the trademark to the name, it’s probably not worth going after until it becomes clear whether Apple are going to continue using ‘the launchpad’ or not as the name. Don’t get me wrong, it would give Canonical (and therefore Ubuntu) a lot of press, but I’m just not sure it would be worth it right now.
Either way, it should be interesting to see where it goes and what happens.
7 Responses to “Launchpad…gate?”
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How about Canonical being sued by:
- NASA
- The Soviet (and other) space programme(s)
Or:
- The band Particle
- The Launchpad concert arena
- The Launchpad Music Competition, Wisconsin
- Walt Disney
Or directly relevant holders:
- Texas Instruments
- Clearspring
- U3
If it were up to me id send a nice email to apple and ask them to change the name to something that wont be so confusing.
And (Telepathy) “Mission Control” too..
It should be said that rather, Canonical owns the trademark on the name Launchpad for a very SPECIFIC purpose.
Most people think that a name, once trademarked means no one can ever use that name ever, anywhere, even in websites. Canonical is under this delusion as well. But trademark names are for specific businesses. So Canonical can trademark the name Ubuntu for an operating system but not a restaurant. (Hey there IS such a restaurant, how about my luck on picking just the right example…or was it luck?). Courts might extend the trademark to software in general because it could cause brand confusion. Whereas a restaurant named Ubuntu would likely not cause brand confusion.
Which drives us to the Apple situation. And then from there to two questions:
1. Does Apple using the name Launchpad for one of its products create the POSSIBILITY of brand confusion.
A. I’d say yes, some may agree or disagree. But a kids toy “The Launchpad” which shoots foam rockets into the ceiling, annoying the hell out of parents, I’d say no.
2. How would APPLE react if someone had ANY HINT OF F’N SIMILARITY to one of their products.
A. Do we need to answer that? They have already reacted with lawsuits and demands to rename or remove a product.
3. Is Apple REALLY unaware of so large a product as Launchpad?
A. Considering that GNU/Linux has 0.000000371% penetration on the desktop, … -grin-.
AE (answer explnation). That was a SNARK for those that are about to get their aoirthoirs all in a bunch.
Trademarks not being actively protected can have problems down the road. I don’t know if there is any legal overlap in these two uses of Launchpad, though I think their *might* be.
I think Apple choose this name to create confusion. MacOS and Ubuntu have some similarities, once ‘Lion’ is launched, Ubuntu users will google for “Ubuntu launchpad” or “Ubuntu mission control”. Since Canonical have products with the same name, confusion will arise,
A unenforced trademark becomes harder to enforce later.