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by JohnFen 1043 days ago
> Is it even possible to trademark a single letter name?

The letter by itself, maybe, but maybe not. The letter in a distinctive font, though (which is what they're doing), very likely.

Remember the purpose of trademark is consumer protection: to be able to tell that a product or service really is from who you think it is. As long as the trademark is distinctive enough in the product categories it applies to, it's allowed.

2 comments

> The letter in a distinctive font, though (which is what they're doing), very likely.

But it’s not actually “X”. The symbol while obscure is called “ Mathematical Double-Struck Capital X “. Graphically the logo seems completely identical to the Unicode character. I don’t know if they can register it as a trademark it but would sure seem weird if you could that with something like “ ∫ “

Will be pretty hard when multiple IT companies already use X as name for products, services or companies.

Even the logo is mistakable.

Hell, even the open source. It also looks a bit better IMO.

https://en.wikipedia.org//wiki/X_Window_System

Yes, you and croes have an excellent point. We'll see if someone challenges the trademark (or sues for trademark infringement). That might be interesting.