I'm torn. You can't copyright names and such, those are trademarks. And while he has tried to defend his mark publicly, and could possibly register it retroactively (in the US, don't know about overseas), his defense hasn't been very energetic. The book he mentions is a self-published one and the sad fact is that the language has gotten little traction since first announcement in 2003.
So on the one hand, I feel that one can't possibly satisfy everyone, and if you're going to snag a desirable name like 'Go' for your product, it's up to you to think ahead about how to preserve your rights of ownership. For example 'Go' could be a great name for a brand of shoes or a bicycle, but if you don't launch an actual product people can buy and associate the name with it, then you can't complain too much when Nike or someone tries the same thing later. Go author Frank McCabe's own homepage [1] doesn't exactly ddraw attention to the project. On the other hand, Google has IMHO been a bit heavy-handed in defending their own mark, as when they picked a fight with 'Groggle' an Australian startup which aimed to help users find retailers of particular alcoholic drinks (grog being a synonym for booze down under), though both the site and dispute seem to be on the back burner right now.
A nicer and inexpensive solution (in case anyone@google is reading) would be a link on the Go! homepage saying 'If you're looking for the Go logic programming language by McCabe and Clark, click here.' To be honest, I think the unfortunate naming overlap has generated more attention for the Go language than it would ever have acquired on its own.
So on the one hand, I feel that one can't possibly satisfy everyone, and if you're going to snag a desirable name like 'Go' for your product, it's up to you to think ahead about how to preserve your rights of ownership. For example 'Go' could be a great name for a brand of shoes or a bicycle, but if you don't launch an actual product people can buy and associate the name with it, then you can't complain too much when Nike or someone tries the same thing later. Go author Frank McCabe's own homepage [1] doesn't exactly ddraw attention to the project. On the other hand, Google has IMHO been a bit heavy-handed in defending their own mark, as when they picked a fight with 'Groggle' an Australian startup which aimed to help users find retailers of particular alcoholic drinks (grog being a synonym for booze down under), though both the site and dispute seem to be on the back burner right now.
1. http://homepage.mac.com/frankmccabe/Menu2.html
A nicer and inexpensive solution (in case anyone@google is reading) would be a link on the Go! homepage saying 'If you're looking for the Go logic programming language by McCabe and Clark, click here.' To be honest, I think the unfortunate naming overlap has generated more attention for the Go language than it would ever have acquired on its own.