Name OpenSBI already in use, up to the casing, since 2008

[CCRDude]

Hi there,

Not trying to stir any trouble, but I was googling for one of our wiki pages and instead found lot's of references to the RISC-V Open Source Supervisor Binary Interface.

To sum it up: I'm the author of Spybot - Search & Destroy, an anti-malware solution existing since 1999. We published documentation of our open custom signature language called OpenSBI somewhere around 2008, when our version 1.6 included support for it.

I wonder if no one did use a simple search engine before picking this name?

[nc7s]

I wonder too: is it a registered trademark? Also, trademarks are registered under categories, so is this OpenSBI registered under the category of that OpenSBI?

If both answers are "no", then you are basically a John blaming another John for not using a simple search engine before picking this name John.

[CCRDude]

You don't need to register trademarks to protect a name in most countries. Especially since I'm a John with a name that's part of a product with 600 million verified downloads, and many probably more that are anonymous, since we don't track downloads from our own servers, cover mounts, &c. Plus, I'm a John with at least 16 years in use, which is a strong argument in itself.

Actually though, I was simply starting the discussion out of curiosity, not for discussing the legal aspects of trademarks vs. registered trademarks, long-standing use, common trademark rights, &c. ;)

[nc7s]

I didn't meant to discuss deep into those topics either. If you were not aware, my last reply basically means there's no inherent right to blame others for using a name one has used, even for some time. And you probably didn't notice the part about categories, but basically, Johnny the bakery can't sue Johnny the car dealer for using the same Johnny name. Please direct your complaint to search engines which can not distinguish things with the same name but of different categories. Happy defending your right to be and to be the only John, I'll not respond further ;)

(FWIW, I'm annoyed as a fan of the cyberpunk genre that the word "cyberpunk" is overrun on search engines by the Cyberpunk 2077 game, but at least acknowledge the reason.)

[CCRDude]

Johny is not the same as a name that's a combination of a word and an abbreviation, but I'm pretty sure you are already aware of this.

You couldn't call your product Microsoft even if you don't offer an OS, and that's a mere combination of Micro and Soft. Not that I'm saying our small non profit oriented team would be the same size as MS, but rights are not affected by income. But if Microsoft would have been called Cyberpunk, no game called Cyberpunk 2077 would exist, just like there is no game called Microsoft 2077.

Your attitude of ridiculing things is not the type of communication I'm used to, so thanks for not responding any further :)

[nc7s]

JFTR: "I wonder if no one did use a simple search engine before picking this name?" reads suspiciously like ridiculing things. Even if I'm ridiculing, it's reciprocal. (It's an accusation, after all. I'll not respond/reply if/why I can call my product Microsoft, etc.)

[CCRDude]

Well, I was really wondering. Whenever I pick a product name, I do spend a lot of time googling. Our company name, "Safer Networking", for example, didn't return a single search result back in 2003 in Google and AltaVista and Yahoo back then. Still, the trademark office rejected it as similarly common as "Safer Sex" - that was the official rejection notice ;) Meaning I was forced to spent some time investigating on what could be trademarked, and what not.

You could see my question as ridiculing, or simply as curiosity and an invitation to say: "oh, it seems everyone thought someone else would do, but no one did".

If you felt offended or ridiculed (were you involved in the process?), I do apologize.