I think Borland/Inprise's actions have been perfectly putrid, and
I want to throw my support behind Ann's and Helen's ventures.

I haven't got much money or man-hours to devote right now (being
in the middle of some huge projects) but I might just have
something even more valuable to offer.

If Borland wants the name "Interbase", I say let them have it!
This is an incredible opportunity to differentiate and divorce
this community from them and their sleazy actions. The irony
is that if we fork from the very start and create a name that
is widely recognized and admired, we can prevent Borland from
using that trademark to promote their own doomed and dying
distro.

As for the new name, I'd stay away from "Phoenix" unless you
want an uphill trademark fight from the start with the BIOS
company.

Properly searched and registered trademarks cost big bucks, and
there's been more than one company that ended up in dire straits
because they cut corners or ignored this fact. I happen to own
a registered trademark covering computer software that I paid
the big bucks for and am no longer using. I would love to see
this used for Ann's venture and/or a new "forked" IB distribution
since I have high hopes for both.

It's also appropriate enough to be postively eerie, but you've
got to humor me and read through my drivel to find out what it is!

Back in 1984, I created a telecommunications program for the
just-born Macintosh and released it as shareware. I named
it after the first song I heard on a tavern jukebox ("Lunatic
Fringe", by Red Rider - but the jukebox guy spelled the band's
name wrong and used the cartoon comic strip character's spelling.)

I located and licensed the trademark "Red Ryder" from the
widow of the comic strip creator for a reasonable fee (it
turned out that this was a gift since I never used any
images or references to that character and their trademark
had nothing to do with computer software, but once I gave
them money out of ignorance I was legally tied in.)

The product did extremely well, and years went by. The user
manual got so large that it had to be distributed in bound-
and-printed form, so we took the product out of shareware
and into strict commercial distribution - the community
didn't flinch and embraced our actions with incredible
support. When the daughter (a Hollywood lawyer) of the
"Red Ryder" trademark heir got wind of just how well my
product was doing, she waited until I was a couple of weeks
away from releasing a new version, and then told me it
would cost me a HUGE amount of money to renew the trademark
license (which was up for renewal in 4 months.)

I could have paid it, but I felt it was ethically wrong to
participate in this. So, I retained a trademark law firm
and renamed the product in mid-stream. I took all of the
pre-printed manuals, disks and advertising artwork using
"Red Ryder" to the dump.

I played my case to the media and came out smelling like
a rose and the product did better than ever (until the
Internet finally made it obsolete.) The new name, and the
trademark I am offering is "White Knight" This invokes
the image of the righteous hero coming to the aid of an
oppressed individual facing imminent danger.

So, if there's any interest in this bought-and-paid-for
trademark, please let me know at wsw@... and let's
talk about it.

S.W.

P.S. Here is an impossibly long URL to verify this (since
eGroups and/or your browser or mail-reader will almost
certainly split it, you'll have to paste it back together
manually):

http://trademarks.uspto.gov/cgi-bin/ifetch4?ENG+ALL+3+988462+0+0+63703
7+F+9+15+1+MS%2fwhite+AND+MS%2fknight