Sun bites the hands that build it with trademark defense

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:21:26 -0700

The annual Javapolis conference each December draws Java developers from all over the world. With over 3,000 attendees each year, it's one of the largest Java developer conferences outside the U.S. So why have they suddenly changed their name after six years as Javapolis?

Java, a language/software platform owned by Sun Microsystems, has suffered from an ambiguity problem since it's inception. While Sun owns the registered trademark as well as the stock ticker symbol, their baby was named after an Indonesian island as well as a slang term for coffee. An entire page at Wikipedia lists the various uses, forms, and ownership of each term. Defending the trademark in light of all its possible uses must be a full-time job for more than one Sun employee.

Why the sudden problem with the Javapolis name is anyone's guess, but the Javapolis organizers changed the name of the annual conference to JaVoxx, only to be told by the Sun legal team that Javoxx is also too close to Sun's trademark. The latest name change, announced in the conference newsletter, is to Devoxx, which will hopefully make Sun happy even if it does rile the 80s New Wave band.

Sun spins the name change as a way for Devoxx to remain an independent conference (huh?) and Sun is listed as a Premium Partner of the conference this year. Longtime Sun Java architect and Javapolis presenter Fabrizio Giudici notes that Sun offered a licensing agreement with too many restrictions, and was forcing a great deal of difficulty on the conference organizers only a few months before this year's event with what appears to be overly aggressive trademark defense. Is anyone really going to confuse JaVoxx with JavaOne or any of Sun's Java branding?

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Sun bites the hands that build it with trademark defense