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From: munson@renoir.Berkeley.EDU (Ethan V. Munson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: McIntosh <=> MacIntosh
Message-ID: <20263@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Sun, 23-Aug-87 19:02:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.20263
Posted: Sun Aug 23 19:02:34 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 24-Aug-87 00:41:14 EDT
References: <8708220352.AA24519@cogsci.berkeley.edu> <137@stech.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: munson@renoir.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Ethan V. Munson)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 45
Summary: Yet more name trivia
Xref: mnetor comp.sys.mac:5908 comp.sys.amiga:7699

In article <137@stech.UUCP> sysop@stech.UUCP (Jan Harrington) writes:
>in article <8708220352.AA24519@cogsci.berkeley.edu>, bryce@COGSCI.BERKELEY.EDU (Bryce Nesbitt) says:
>> 
>> I've seen an early "Mac" description that said "McIntosh" (McIntosh, as
>> in the edible apple)  since this later changed to "MacIntosh" (As in
>> the raincoat), one must wonder.  Apple computer selling Apples, yes.
>
>Hey, as far as I know, it's neither "McIntosh" or "MacIntosh", but
>"Macintosh".    The "i" isn't capitalized.  Apple seems rather sensitive
>about this point ...

Being a closet etymologist, here's what I think happenned:

1)  Apple used "apple" names for several early projects.  The apple variety is
presumably spelled "MacIntosh", at least this is what the stores use and 
Scottish names usually capitalize the part of the name after Mac or Mc (which
stand for "of the clan", more or less).

2)  Apple got sued, I think, by McIntosh Labs, a manufacturer of extremely high
quality hi-fi gear.  I think that McIntosh was afraid they would lose their
trademark and maybe also wanted to make sure that people didn't think
that Apple owned them.  I don't think the suit had too much merit, but they
are both in the electronics business.  Apple settled, though I don't think they
paid any money, and agreed to include the little disclaimer about McIntosh labs
with each of Apple's trademark declarations for the Mac.

3)  Since McIntosh labs is probably named after Mr. McIntosh and MacIntosh
apples have the same kind of history behind their name, it is in Apple's
interest to avoid trademark problems by spelling the name of their computer
in a manner different from the standard Scottish spelling.

Ethan Munson
munson@renoir.berkeley.edu
...ucbvax!renoir!munson

Disclaimer: the above is mostly guesswork.

Note:  Just think how much money you could make as a fly-by-night purveyor
oF Korean computers if your company has a figurehead president whose last name
is MacIntosh. (Trademarks are not supposed to prevent people from using 
their legal name on any product they sell themselves)  I'm sure Apple has
thought of this.


2)