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Sun, Mar 21, 2010 - 10:31 PM EDT — AAPL: 222.2499 (-2.4001, -1.07%) | NASDAQ: 2374.41 (-16.87, -0.71%)

Apple seeks to trademark ‘OS X’ sans ‘Mac’

Thursday, January 15, 2009 - 12:44 PM EDT

"Seemingly cementing a move first hinted at during the World Wide Developers Conference, Apple has filed for a trademark for its OS X operating system but without the "Mac" prefix that has accompanied the name since its inception," Aidan Malley reports for AppleInsider.

"The Cupertino-based company initially filed for its trademark in Trinidad and Tobago less than a week after the June 2008 conference, where lobby banners first indicated a split where Apple would distinguish between OS X Leopard, the version of its operating system for traditional computers, and OS X iPhone, the modified platform that supports both its namesake cellphone and the iPod touch," Aidan Malley reports for AppleInsider.

"The software label also passed through a southeast Asian trademark office in November, but as of this writing remains under review," Malley reports. "Apple's reasons for trademarking at this stage aren't entirely clear, though the most conspicuous is its current product strategy: as many of its devices are running some variant of the FreeBSD-based software but operating well outside the bounds of ordinary Macs, the company may be under some self-imposed pressure to rebrand its flagship software in a way that allows it to enforce its trademarks without tying itself to a particular software revision or product line."

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Apple should come up with a better name than "OS X iPhone." One that doesn't slight iPod touch and every other future non-iPhone device that will employ the OS. Something better than "OS X Mobile" or "OS X Lite" of course, but those names should give you an idea of what we mean. We constantly see articles discussing "iPhone apps" even though the same apps also run on iPod touch. If Apple's OS were properly named, we'd see articles talking about "'OS X Mobile' apps" instead and everyone would know that their device was included.

Also, for quite some time, Apple's naming guru has suffered from muddled thinking. Why some caps and some lowercase names? iPod touch is constantly incorrectly referred to in the press as "iPod Touch" or, Jobs forbid, "iTouch." It doesn't help matters that Apple has "Mac Pro," but also "Mac mini." We guess the "Pro" is uppercase because it's big and the "mini" is lowercase because it's small? But, then why "MacBook Air?" It makes no sense. Why use "iPod naming convention" for the Mac mini, but no other Macs? Yes, it's minor, but it's also inconsistent, which isn't a good thing for a company that prides itself on - and bills itself as - being consistent down to the most minor details.

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Jan 15, 09 - 02:00 pm Comment from: HMCIV

@MDN Take

It is consistent. If you haven't figured out the pattern yet, than you probably don't know what state The Simpsons live in either.

Jan 15, 09 - 02:01 pm Comment from: Spark

MDN-"It makes no sense. It's minor, but it's also inconsistent, which isn't a good thing for a company that prides itself on - and bills itself as - being consistent down to the most minor details."

Now you know why companies use those boring model numbers. You can't remember them, but it is sure a lot easier to keep numbers in a consistent pattern than it is for words.

Jan 15, 09 - 02:11 pm Comment from: John Gee

Why no commentary on the potential prospect of Apple readying OSX for Dell's?

Jan 15, 09 - 02:17 pm Comment from: HolyMackerel

I hope they trademark 'OS XI' for the future.

Jan 15, 09 - 02:17 pm Comment from: jtc

@HMCIV
There is more than one Springfield in the USA

I'm not sure if every one of them has a Powerplant in them or not though.

Jan 15, 09 - 02:25 pm Comment from: Peter

Well, considering that the various Mac OS X codenames have been big cats, perhaps iPhone OS X codenames should be small cats?

OS X Leopard for Macs.
OS X Oncilla for iPhone and iPod touch.

Jan 15, 09 - 02:29 pm Comment from: Tommy Boy

My vote is OS X Kitten.

Jan 15, 09 - 02:30 pm Comment from: Mac Daddy

Hmmm... I can see it now... OS X Tabby.

Jan 15, 09 - 02:31 pm Comment from: scott

@John Gee-

Because Apple isn't readying OS X (any version) for anything but future Apple products. OS X is the single most valuable piece of property Apple owns and the company is not going to blindly give it away/license it/sell it.

OS X is the most important factor to consider in comparing Apple products to anything else.

Jan 15, 09 - 02:40 pm Comment from: Wandering joe

OS X Pussy, on the iPhone

Jan 15, 09 - 02:40 pm Comment from: rdbvideo

Simpsons SPOILER ALERT

Having watched all The Simpsons from short #1 on The Tracey Ullman Show.... all the hints I've seen lead me to believe it's KY.

Jan 15, 09 - 02:43 pm Comment from: Littlecat Litter

How about OS X Puddytat?

Jan 15, 09 - 02:44 pm Comment from: G Spank

Is this a sign that Apple is going to license OS X to third parties?

Jan 15, 09 - 02:48 pm Comment from: John Gee

@scott

I just fiured it would be worth a mention since it's been a running conversation on here.

Jan 15, 09 - 02:50 pm Comment from: John Gee

*figured

And also, iTouch is used by many. It's as if it was truly named iTouch. Remarkable indeed.

Jan 15, 09 - 02:51 pm Comment from: FUDsucker Proxy

No no no.

OSX Manx!

Jan 15, 09 - 02:54 pm Comment from: Gordon

Trinidad & Tobago - my homeland.

Jan 15, 09 - 03:02 pm Comment from: Southwind

Well obviously, if they were to follow their own naming convention the iPhone version of OS X would be OS x.

Jan 15, 09 - 03:36 pm Comment from: ken1w

The Mac mini is lower-case because that name is a hold-over from the PowerPC days. At the time, that's how Apple products were named (mostly iPods examples); the other Mac products were iMac, PowerBook, iBook, and Power Mac. The only product name with two words is Power Mac, and you are not going to make the M in Mac lower case. So it was consistent with the new names Apple's "naming guru" invented.

Since changing the product line to Intel, Apple has been consistent with its new Mac names. They simply kept the two existing names as is, Mac mini and iMac. If they were going to change Mac mini to Mac Mini, they should also change iMac to Mac (to be consistent).

Jan 15, 09 - 03:40 pm Comment from: AA Attendee

OS X Sea Kitten, for the PETA lovers out there

Jan 15, 09 - 03:44 pm Comment from: krautpastry

Yeah, actual Apple news! No more cat names, we need something with some action to it....how about OS X Pounce.

Jan 15, 09 - 03:55 pm Comment from: Quad Core

To tell you exactly how important those capitals and lowercase names are............I never even noticed until MDN pointed it out.

Jan 15, 09 - 04:03 pm Comment from: Oneders

I wonder what happened to the Oneders?

Jan 15, 09 - 04:08 pm Comment from: Quad Core

"Why no commentary on the potential prospect of Apple readying OSX for Dell's?"

Because that would still be 'OS X Leopard"

Jan 15, 09 - 04:11 pm Comment from: Quad Core

Isn't the reality quite simple? Apple MAY be licensing it out for embedded this or that, but the bottom line is that the OS is referred to generically as OS X, so the trademark is to protect that.

Jan 15, 09 - 04:13 pm Comment from: DLMeyer

HolyMackerel said: "I hope they trademark 'OS XI' for the future."
And why would they do THAT? You think maybe they will need it to follow 10.9.11? Silly, stupid person, that isn't how version numbers work! They could go to 10.23.45 if that's what they wanted. See those dots? Not commas, DOTS. Each of the numbers between each pair of dots can run from -0- to ... until people get bored with it. The "X" is a marketable name, like "HP" or "iPod", and they will milk that recognition until it ceases being "positive". "XI" will not follow.

Jan 15, 09 - 04:14 pm Comment from: Quad Core

"OS X Sea Kitten, for the PETA lovers out there"

Are there any?

Jan 15, 09 - 04:15 pm Comment from: alansky

I totally agree that Mac mini and iPod touch are both incredibly lame. These products don't need cutesy names to attract attention.

Jan 15, 09 - 04:54 pm Comment from: Lame

iTouch-- I touch what ? myself??

Worst. Name. Ever.

Jan 15, 09 - 04:59 pm Comment from: AA Attendee

"OS X Sea Kitten, for the PETA lovers out there"

Are there any?

--------- Only their membership.... and the press corps...

Jan 15, 09 - 05:17 pm Comment from: Anthony

anyone else ready for a totally "new" Next-Gen OS? OS X has been around forever...

Jan 15, 09 - 05:19 pm Comment from: Brau

It should be O S_X Kitten ... because we all know sex sells.

Jan 15, 09 - 05:22 pm Comment from: AA Attendee

The Big O S_X Kitten

Jan 15, 09 - 09:01 pm Comment from: Predrag

OS X has been around forever...

Clearly much longer than System 9 (or 8, or 7...). It seems that Apple has decided to stay at 10 for some time. Eventually, though they'll have to move on, since 10 might give some competitors ammunition to describe it as very, very old (and therefore, obsolete) OS.

So, regardless of how many dots and how many double-digit numbers between them can there be, it would be just plain silly to see OS X 10.15.52. The number looks geeky and clearly makes it look really old.

Jan 16, 09 - 01:07 am Comment from: mh

perhaps the idea is to remove the "10" from the version number and keep the "X", as in OS X version 5 = Leopard instead of Max OS 10.5=Leopard.

That way, the OS X trademark can stay for a long time, without clutter of the version number and dots. So Snow Leopard will just be OS X ver 6 or jsut OSX.6.

just a thought. I could be wrong.

Jan 16, 09 - 03:30 am Comment from: theloniousMac

OS X sans Mac means exactly that Mac dorks.

Apple is preparing to license OS X to other PC makers.

BWA ha ha ha ha ha ha!

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Apple seeks to trademark ‘OS X’ sans ‘Mac’

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Sun, Mar 21, 2010 - 10:31 PM EDT — AAPL: 222.2499 (-2.4001, -1.07%) | NASDAQ: 2374.41 (-16.87, -0.71%)

Apple seeks to trademark ‘OS X’ sans ‘Mac’

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