Unix, paint thinner

There have been many cases where free and open source software projects have fallen foul of trademark law, such as those involving Lindows, later known as Linspire, Linux Mandrake, now known as Mandriva, KIllustrator (Karbon14), Krayon (Krita), and MobiliX, a German website which specialised in mobile Unix and Linux.

In June 2001, MobiliX received a cease and desist letter on behalf of Les Editions Albert Rene, demanding that MobiliX unregister its name or risk legal action. The grounds for this action were that Les Editions Albert Rene is the holder of the trademarks Asterix and Obelix, as associated with the comic book characters of Asterix the Gaul - and that the MobiliX name, in particular the use of the suffix 'ix', infringed these trademarks. MobiliX was not a registered trademark of Les Editions Albert Rene. Nor was MobiliX in competition with Asterix or Obelix, who are comic book characters. Moreover, adding the suffix 'ix' is a common practice when naming Linux and Unix related projects, and has always been so.

Unix thinners can
A can of Italian 'Unix' paint thinner. Coincidently, Dennis Ritchie keeps a page on the Bell Laboratories website that is dedicated to recording Autres Unix, autres moeurs - alternative products that use the name Unix. These include Unix nappies by Pannolini of Mexico, Unix fire extinguishers, roller pens, drying racks, Nitro-based paint thinner, anti-fungal treatment for wheat and barley, TV antennae, massage chairs, eyeglass frames, "appliances for the body, the kitchen and the home", auto parts, van rentals, hair salons, furniture shops, manufacturers of fabrics, and faucets. Except for a preliminary skirmish between AT&T and the Japanese electronics company, Marantz, when Unix was first introduced to Japan, there have been no law suits between any of these parties.

Until approached by the lawyers acting for Les Editions Albert Rene, Werner Heuser, who ran the MobiliX website, had only the vaguest notion of the existence of Asterix. Indeed, Heuser recounts that when he was a child his parents didn't allow him to read comics, and perhaps because of this, he became interested in Linux instead.

Werner Heuser Nonetheless, in the summer of 2003 the appeal court decided that the names Obelix and Mobilix were "very similar", and determined that it was irrelevant that the suffix "ix" is often used in the naming of computer related products. Heuser was ordered to withdraw both the trademark and the domain name of the MobiliX website and, even more remarkably, to pay compensation to Les Editions Albert Rene. MobiliX now trades under the name, TuxMobil.