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From: guy@sun.uucp (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: net.micro.att
Subject: Re: XENIX 3.0
Message-ID: <2237@sun.uucp>
Date: Mon, 27-May-85 22:05:40 EDT
Article-I.D.: sun.2237
Posted: Mon May 27 22:05:40 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 28-May-85 13:40:39 EDT
References: <2343@seismo.UUCP> <10846@brl-tgr.ARPA> <2408@seismo.UUCP>
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Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
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> ok folks, another mind boggling question. who owns the trademark XENIX?

Microsoft.

> microsoft markets a product they call XENIX, but it is for the ibm pc/at.
> a company called, i believe, the santa cruise operation markets a product
> they call XENIX also. it is this second unix that i refered to in the
> article i posted...

The Santa Cruz Operation is a second source for Microsoft's XENIX.  XENIX is
Microsoft's name for their UNIX offering.  It's a UNIX port to various
machines with enhancements added by Microsoft.  XENIX is available on
machines other than the PC/AT.

> as i understood it, from a discussion with an att engineer a while ago(read
> ~2 years), att licenced other companies to port and distribute UNIX on their
> own, with the stipulations that att be paid a royality, and that the final
> product contain a UN prefix or a IX suffix.

Correct, except that AT&T doesn't care if your system's name contains a UN
prefix or IX suffix; CCI's UNIX port is called PERPOS (don't ask why).
There *may* be a stipulation that it can't be called UNIX unless it's
unmodified AT&T code, although it can say that it's derived from the UNIX
system; Microsoft's ads said "XENIX is a microcomputer adaptation of the
UNIX system and is licensed to Microsoft by <whichever branch of AT&T was
licensing it at the time>" (as well as, of course, the infamous "UNIX is a
Footnote of <whatever Bell Labs was being called at the time>").

	Guy Harris