[bad_user]

Open source projects should really register trademarks and sue companies like Microsoft. It really doesn't pay to be the good guy. After all, if anybody used the word Windows for an alternative OS, I'm pretty sure Microsoft wouldn't be happy.

[Senji]

You shouldn't be able to trademark function names and executable file names. Therein lies madness.

[pritambaral]

OTOH, if I (or a big entity like, say, Apple) released something called Java which didn't really behave like Java™, that would also result in a bit of madness.

I think trademarks are good; and when compatible alternatives exist, of say, a product named 'Foo™', they should be able to market themselves as 'Foo™ compatible' (and obviously not as 'Foo™').

[adontz]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Corp._v._Lindows.com....

[soneil]

So assuming they have a similar problem where 'ls' is aliased to 'dir'. Who should have trademarked 'ls'?