https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/basics/what-trademark
"A common misconception is that having a trademark means you legally own a particular word or phrase and can prevent others from using it. However, you don’t have rights to the word or phrase in general, only to how that word or phrase is used with your specific goods or services.
For example, let's say you use a logo as a trademark for your small woodworking business to identify and distinguish your goods or services from others in the woodworking field. This doesn't mean you can stop others from using a similar logo for non-woodworking related goods or services."
Comcast the shitty network simulator should not be confused with Comcast the Internet Service Provider. Joke really is on them if they ever file a lawsuit.
Comcast has like 50 trademarks (look them up on TESS), and they impact on everything from cable to internet services to hats and coffee mugs, basically anything the company makes or does. Let's take COMCAST BUSINESS as a random example. This trademark is registered for a variety of categories for which confusion can easily occur, but one stands out (italics mine):
> "IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Downloadable cloud-based software used to back up business data; downloadable cloud-based software used to share business data; downloadable cloud-based software used to send and manage secure documents; *downloadable cloud-based software used to manage, secure and protect computer networks;* downloadable cloud-based software used to create and transmit documents with electronic signatures; downloadable cloud-based software used to manage telephone systems; downloadable cloud-based software used to manage advanced telephone features; downloadable cloud-based software used to provide web conferencing; downloadable cloud-based software used to monitor business security systems; *downloadable cloud-based software used to detect and remediate computer viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, adware, malware and unauthorized data and programs;* high-definition multimedia interface cables; and Ethernet and wireless networking hardware and computer hardware and components thereof."
Then there's this one:
> "IC 038. US 100 101 104. G & S: *Providing high-speed access to the Internet, mobile networks, wired and wireless networks and other electronic communications networks;* telecommunication access services; telecommunications gateway services; wireless broadband communication services; wireless broadband telecommunications services; telecommunications services, namely, voice, video, and data transmissions provided through the use of cable television distribution facilities; telecommunication services, namely, transmission of voice, data, graphics, images, audio and video by means of wireless communication networks; *high-speed electronic data interchange services provided via modems, hybrid fiber coaxial cable networks, routers, and servers;* electronic, local and long distance transmission of voice, data, and graphics by means of cable, telephone, wireless, ISDN, and technologies; telephone communication services; providing voice communications services via cable, fiber optics, the internet, wired and wireless networks, mobile networks and other electronic communications networks; providing fiber optic network services; Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services; cable television services; cable television broadcasting services; cable television transmission services; providing access to telecommunication networks; provision of telecommunication access to video and audio content via video-on-demand, interactive television, pay per view, and pay television subscription services; video-on-demand transmission services; video conferencing services; wireless PBX services; cloud-based PBX services; streaming of video and audio material via the Internet, wired and wireless networks, mobile networks and other electronic communications networks; telecommunications services, namely, providing advanced calling features and leasing or rental of telecommunications equipment; leasing or rental of telecommunications equipment; computer network access services by means of a metro Ethernet; electronic transmission and streaming of digital media content for others via the Internet, wired and wireless networks, mobile networks and other electronic communications networks; cloud-based communications services in the nature of instant messaging, telephony, audio and video conferencing, screen sharing, file transfer, call control and management, voice mail, e-mail, SMS and facsimile services; and providing wireless hot spots."
And that's just the first thing I picked out. It goes on like this. So, yeah. Comcast the network degradation simulation software almost unquestionably overlaps with Comcast's trademarks.
Perhaps he should rebrand it "Xfinity." That seems like a perfectly harmless name that is in no way associated with poor products and crap customer service.
I've had this project starred for at least 7 years, so perhaps Comcast legal has more of a sense of humor than we're giving them credit for.
Trademark and copyright tend to requirement historic evidence of enforcement to be enforceable in the future. If they fail to enforce this and it's significantly in the public sphere, it could be used as evidence the trademark and copyright no longer apply, depending on the judge.
However, if you do get the eventual C&D, you might as well tweet about it and get another 15mins of fame!
*Edit, if you think that a corporate legal team is allowed to display a sense of humor, you'd be very mistaken. Sure, some might be cognizant of their corporate overlords, but to think that they would let something like this slide once made aware of it would/could be an expensive mistaken idea to have
Comcast the ISP doesn't have to actively enforce against Comcast brand tires or Comcast brand coffee.
A lot of people are confused about this, and big companies use "we have to actively enforce" as an excuse to crush companies in unrelated fields. But you don't.
And my second brief thought was: maybe they forgot to turn it off for me?
Wish I was kidding.
A couple citations I liked:
https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2655736
https://blog.acolyer.org/2014/12/18/the-network-is-reliable/
No, comcast. :)
Jokes aside, that paper is very worth reading. And HN readers will recognize one of the authors as the creator of Jepsen, of distributed database testing fame.
I recall at least one other project with this kind of naming sense: https://github.com/auchenberg/volkswagen
which was named after https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_emissions_scandal
and is currently the top result for "volkswagen test library".
At least, this was the original intention. In today's more corporation-friendly world, more emphasis is being put on the corporations interests unfortunately.
"So the next time you complain about your phone service, why don't you try using two Dixie Cups with a string? We don't care. We don't have to. We're the phone company." -Lilly Tomlin as Ernestine
comcast --stop