Why didn't Sun say "You're using my name!"?
UPDATE Thanks for the answers, and not downvoting! :)
I knew it was called LiveScript at one stage, but the Wikipedia article must of drifted out of my memory.
Do you think the licensing name has helped Java at all with their marketing?
According to the Wikipedia JavaScript article the name "JavaScript" was the result of a co-marketing deal between Netscape and Sun. (It was originally called "Mocha" and then "LiveScript".)
In other words, this was a very deliberate step on the part of Sun, not a case of Netscape trying to stomp over their name.
From the linked article:
"JavaScript" is a trademark of Sun Microsystems. It was used under license for technology invented and implemented by Netscape Communications and current entities such as the Mozilla Foundation.
and further:
Due to the widespread success of JavaScript as a client-side scripting language for web pages, Microsoft developed a compatible dialect of the language, naming it JScript to avoid trademark issues.
So, there was no need for Sun to sue as the name was either licensed (Netscape/mozilla) or technically not used at all (Microsoft)
Do I think it helped them marketing Javascript? Possibly.
Do I think it was worth the confusion it caused? Definitely not!
Perhaps this is not stackoverflow type discussion and perhaps i should keep my opinions to myself but i feel like the term has been used so often without the Sun Microsystems context and is so ubiquitous now that Sun would have a terrible time holding up their ownership of the trademark in court. They haven't tried to maintain their ownership of it in any legal sense and have thus lost any real control or ownership of it. It is now part of the public domain/consciousness.