Opinion ID: 182459
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The UNIX-iNUX Dispute

Text: The events directly giving rise to this litigation began in 1999, when the Appellant Gray filed an application with the Patent & Trademark Office to register the trademark “iNUX.” Gray had incorporated a computer software business in October 1998, initially under the name MegaChoice, Inc. But he later changed the company’s name to iNUX, Inc. and applied to register the iNUX mark in April 1999. This application prompted a response from X/Open, which sent Gray a letter demanding that he abandon his application for the mark. X/Open contended that 7 iNUX was “virtually identical” to X/Open’s UNIX trademark. Shortly thereafter, X/Open filed a formal administrative opposition to Gray’s application with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) of the PTO. In this opposition, X/Open asserted that it owned several UNIX trademark registrations and that the iNUX mark was likely to “cause confusion, mistake, or deception,” given its similarity to the “famous” UNIX mark. Gray responded to X/Open’s opposition by launching his own investigation into X/Open and the UNIX mark. Through this investigation, he came to believe that Novell had never transferred ownership of the UNIX mark to X/Open and that X/Open’s opposition to the iNUX application was therefore fraudulent. After five years of Gray’s investigation and ongoing discovery disputes between him and X/Open, Gray filed this lawsuit against X/Open, Novell, and SCO. He also filed a successful motion to have the TTAB suspend the opposition proceedings.3