Just because "Redmond Justice" took a day off doesn't mean that Microsoft has to stop being entertaining. For instance, take the case of their recent announcement that the long-awaited Windows NT 5.0 will officially be renamed "Windows 2000." They claim that this new naming scheme will simplify customers' choices and lend a new feel of consistency to their high-end operating system. But according to a ClieNT Server NEWS article (brought to our attention by way of SlashDot following a tip from faithful viewer Todd Wheeler), Microsoft's going to have to reconsider; the name "Windows 2000" is already trademarked. Say hello to Robert Kerstein, a former CFO of a company named McCaw Cellular Corporation, who registered the trademark for use on his Encyberpedia web site. (Too bad he didn't name it "Encarta.")

Now, if this situation doesn't seem eerily familiar, you must have missed Microsoft's whole legal battle over the name "Internet Explorer," which was in fact trademarked by a small ISP in Illinois before the Redmond giant decided to appropriate the name for its web browser. That whole fracas was only resolved a few months ago, and only because the ISP owner's creditors ordered a cash settlement. The lawsuit had gone on so long, the ISP had gone out of business after being crippled by legal bills; with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of lawyers and cash at their disposal, Microsoft is virtually guaranteed to win any court case brought against it by a smaller entity. So if they want to, Microsoft shouldn't have any difficulty throwing money at the problem to secure the rights to the name "Windows 2000," but the embarrassment of making the same mistake twice could be a real black eye.

It's interesting to note that the same lack of attention to detail that often makes using Windows itself such a frustrating and inconsistent experience also leads to fun little situations like this most current naming snafu. In contrast, let's consider the naming of Apple's upcoming NT 5.0 competitor, Mac OS X. Why the jump from 8.5 (or rather, 8.6 or 8.7) to the Roman numeral for ten? Is it just because the technology will be such a quantum leap forward it justifies a similarly dramatic numerical increment? The marketing folks may want you to think that's the only reason, but to be honest, it's also because "OS-9" is already trademarked. See, Apple apparently actually checks these little details before naming a product and going public. It's a radical concept, we know, but those guys think different, right?