may the force be with you

Microsoft Corp. has a new name for its anti-spyware program, and unlike some of its choices for other products, there's no question this time about whether it has the right to use the moniker.

But the software developer who signed over that right isn't happy about the way Microsoft secured it.

Late last week, the company announced that it would begin using the name "Windows Defender" for the anti-spyware program that it plans to offer as part of its flagship PC operating system.

That was a surprise to Adam Lyttle, a 22-year-old developer from Adelaide, Australia, who developed a program of the same name for preventing online sites from making unwanted changes in a computer's settings.

He said he didn't know Microsoft planned to use the name when one of its law firms contacted him last month to inform him that he was infringing on the Windows trademark. The message from the Seed Intellectual Property Law Group asked him to agree to stop using the Windows Defender name.

Lyttle wasn't inclined to get into a legal tussle with the software giant and its army of lawyers. For one thing, he had stopped working on his Windows Defender program nearly a year before that point.

He was puzzled by one element of the agreement, which gives to Microsoft all rights to the Windows Defender name. However, after consulting with a friend in law school, he decided to just sign it and move on.

Lyttle received no money under the agreement, and he said in an interview Monday that he would have given the name to Microsoft just the same had he known the company wanted to use it. But he said he would have preferred the company to have been more straightforward.

"They made it seem like it was just a trademark infringement," Lyttle said, explaining that he was "shocked" to learn, less than two weeks after returning the signed agreement, that Microsoft plans to use the Windows Defender name.

Microsoft says it sees the situation from a different perspective.

Company spokesman Jack Evans said Microsoft had been considering Windows Defender among several possible names for the product, formerly known as Windows AntiSpyware. In the course of investigating the proposed names, he said, Microsoft discovered the Windows Defender program.

That was when the law firm contacted Lyttle on Microsoft's behalf, Evans said. Under trademark law, companies need to pursue cases of trademark infringement as part of the process of ensuring that their marks are protected.

"It's a pretty normal procedure in terms of how we enforce our trademarks," Evans said. "In the course of enforcing that trademark ... we asked him to agree to waive any rights he had to the name, which he did."

Why didn't the company tell Lyttle that it was considering the name for its own product? "We just don't disclose our business plans to third parties before we announce new products," Evans said.

If Lyttle had asked whether Microsoft planned to use the name, the law firm would have been obligated to refrain from deceiving him, said intellectual-property lawyer Thomas Hoffmann, a lawyer with DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary in Seattle. Otherwise, Microsoft and its lawyers were under no legal or ethical obligation to volunteer the information.

In fact, Hoffmann said, it's common for companies not to disclose that type of information in such cases. Lyttle says he wouldn't have tried to negotiate payment, but not everyone is so inclined, Hoffmann said.

"Once you're a well-known company like Microsoft, everyone thinks they've found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow," Hoffmann said.

What's more, he said, Microsoft appears to have had a legitimate complaint of trademark infringement, based on Lyttle's use of Windows in his product name.

Earlier this year, a Michigan company called Edict Inc., which offers a blogging service called Spaces, cried foul when Microsoft chose the name MSN Spaces for its blogging service. The company's owner couldn't be reached for comment Monday afternoon. Edict continues to use the Spaces name.

In August, Microsoft settled a trademark infringement suit filed by Artemis Solutions Group of Whidbey Island, which retained rights to the disputed name, BioCert. Microsoft has stopped using the name for one of its research projects.

Redmond startup Vista.com raised similar questions when Microsoft announced plans to call the next version of its operating system Windows Vista. Microsoft defended the choice by saying the combination of "Windows" and "Vista" would avoid confusion.

Lyttle, whose Adamant Solutions develops Web sites and software programs, said he doesn't plan to pursue the matter any further.

He said it's actually good, in some ways, to see the name of his discontinued product put to use by Microsoft in such a prominent way.

He is working on a number of other programs -- and he gives assurances that none of their names include the word Windows.

source:http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/247483_msftdefender08.html

"Next-Gen.biz has published the second set of prototype designs that were considered, but ultimately rejected, for the Xbox 360. Note the distinct similarities to the final design actually chosen." I wonder if I'm alone in just wishing that consoles looked like stereo components and fit in my rack without scary balancing acts and lopsided aesthetics. A Gamecube, PS2, and X-Box can not be stacked nicely.

source:http://games.slashdot.org/games/05/11/09/135253.shtml?tid=211&tid=10

URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Gates_memo_warns_of_disruptive_changes/0,2000061733,39221468,00.htm

Aiming to stir up the same kind of momentum as his Internet Tidal Wave memo of a decade earlier, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has penned a memo outlining the challenges Microsoft faces from a host of online competitors.

"This coming 'services wave' will be very disruptive," Gates said in an Oct. 30 e-mail to top Microsoft employees. "We have competitors who will seize on these approaches and challenge us."

In the memo, Gates cites an earlier missive from Ray Ozzie, outlining the importance of tapping online advertising and services as new revenue sources.

"It's clear that if we fail to do so, our business as we know it is at risk," Ozzie wrote. "We must respond quickly and decisively."

Ozzie's memo, which was also seen by CNET News.com, includes a laundry list of missed opportunities for the software maker, citing competitive threats from rivals such as Google, Skype, Research In Motion and Adobe.

Ozzie notes areas that Microsoft could have led, such as Web-based applications, but where other companies are instead more heavily focused.

"We should've been leaders with all our web properties in harnessing the potential of Ajax, following our pioneering work in OWA (Outlook Web Access)," Ozzie wrote. "We knew search would be important, but through Google's focus they've gained a tremendously strong position."

In the memo, Ozzie talks about Google as Microsoft's most prominent of the emerging competitors, but also makes reference to Yahoo and Apple Computer.

"Google is obviously the most visible here, although given the hype level it is difficult to ascertain which of their myriad initiatives are simply adjuncts intended to drive scale for their advertising business, or which might ultimately grow to substantively challenge our offerings," Ozzie wrote. "Although Yahoo also has significant communications assets that combine software and services, they are more of a media company and--with the notable exception of their advertising platform--they seem to be utilising their platform capabilities largely as an internal asset.

"The same is true of Apple, which has done an enviable job integrating hardware, software and services into a seamless experience with dotMac, iPod and iTunes, but seems less focused on enabling developers to build substantial products and businesses," Ozzie wrote in his memo.

He also makes reference to smaller, emerging companies that are developing software and services that use the Internet, rather than Windows, as their base platform.

"Developers needing tools and libraries to do their work just search the Internet, download, develop and integrate, deploy, refine," Ozzie wrote. "Speed, simplicity and loose coupling are paramount."

At the same time, Ozzie sees am opportunity if Microsoft can create a Web-based development platform.

"The work of these startups could be improved with a 'services platform'," Ozzie said. "Ironically, the same things that enable and catalyse rapid innovation can also be constraints to their success. "

Microsoft has talked of a developer platform in conjunction with Windows Live, but the company has offered few details of how third parties will be able to build on top of Microsoft's work.

Microsoft has already reorganised the company and outlined some of its plans, but the two memos make clear the urgency and importance that the company is placing on this effort.

The company announced in September that it was reorganising itself into three units and tapping Ozzie to lead a companywide services push. Last week, Microsoft announced the first fruits of that effort--products called Windows Live and Office Live. Windows Live combines many of Microsoft's existing MSN services into an advertising-supported product for consumers, while Office Live is a set of services, some free and some paid, aimed at small businesses.

He also points to the fact that although Microsoft's Office is ubiquitous, it is Adobe's PDF file that has emerged as the key means of sending formatted documents on the Web. Microsoft is proposing its own rival to PDF, known as Metro, with Windows Vista, its new operating system that is due out next year.

Gates says that despite the threats, "the opportunity for us to lead is very clear."

"More than any other company, we have the vision, assets, experience, and aspirations to deliver experiences and solutions across the entire range of digital workstyle & digital lifestyle scenarios, and to do so at scale, reaching users, developers and businesses across all markets."

Details of the memo were reported earlier Tuesday by the Wall Street Journal.

Inmarsat-4 F2, one of the largest and most powerful communications satellites ever built, has succesfully launched from a floating pad in the Pacific.

The six-tonne UK-built craft was carried aloft by a Zenit-3SL rocket at approximately 1407 GMT on Tuesday.

The launch had twice been postponed after a software glitch stopped the countdown sequence on Saturday.

Inmarsat-4 F2 is designed to improve broadband and 3G communications, principally in the Americas.

"The winners of the 18th International Obfuscated C Code Contest have been announced. This years winners include a 'Commodore PET emulator', 'Sound generation with SDL audio', and a 'Text WWW Browser'."

source:http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/08/1932203&tid=156&tid=133