[0xFFFF0000]

Weird question: Could Microsoft sue Amazon here for infringing on the DocumentDB name? I mean Microsoft's DocumentDB was among the first to even have such a MongoDB layer also) and that was like 3 years ago.

Given that current Amazon leaders actually came from Microsoft's data platform group this leaves a bit of a bad taste behind.

I'm not working for either company.

[jon-wood]

My assumption is that DocumentDB falls into a category of being so generic you can't trademark it, or otherwise claim exclusivity to it. Its literally just describing the fact this is a database for documents.

[SmellyGeekBoy]

Bear in mind we're talking about the company that trademarked "Word" and "Excel" here.

[amyjess]

For all any of us know, Amazon's lawyers already talked to Microsoft's lawyers about it and got permission beforehand.

See: Apple licensing the iOS name from Cisco before announcing the name change.