Having exhausted the names of big, glamorous, predatory cats to attach to the latest iterations of its operating system, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has turned to California landmarks and beasts for its next set of OS X titles. The first of these, OS X Mavericks, is already in use, referring to a famous northern California surfing location named for Maverick, an ocean-loving German Shepherd dog. However, the French site Consomac and America’s MacRumors have seemingly uncovered a trove additional upcoming OS X names today.
The switch in naming was announced at 2013’s Worldwide Developers’ Conference by Craig Federighi. According to a quip by Mr. Federighi, he and his colleagues didn’t “want to be the first development team to be delayed by the lack of big cats.” He went on to say that “locations” in California would be used to name the next series of operating system releases. However, today’s revelations expose a much more exciting naming scheme than a collection of place names.
Apple Inc. (AAPL) habitually uses shell companies, most often LLCs, to trademark names and similar properties. This, of course, enables them to maintain secrecy for a much longer time than would be the case if the company itself filed the trademark applications. However, the investigative acumen of MacRumors and Consomac outed the names long before they were due to be unveiled to an eager public.
What the two sites found was that on June 7th, 2013, a group of LLCs filed trademark applications in Trinidad and Tobago for a number of California themed names relating to unspecified software programs. Mr. Federighi announced the new Golden State naming scheme on June 10th, 2013 at the Worldwide Developers’ Conference. All of the applications were then filed again in the United States proper on either December 5th or 6th, 2013. A final, perhaps clinching bit of evidence are that the names of Stephen Brown and James Johnston, two lawyers who have worked for Apple (AAPL) in the recent past, are associated with many of the filings.
The companies involved (likely shells used by Apple) are Yosemite Research LLC, Coast Research LLC, Landmark Associates LLC, Cassowary Devices LLC, Asilomar Enterprises LLC, and Antalos Apps LLC.
The new names are mostly place names, but with a few animal names thrown in for variety and interest. In alphabetical order, the names include Big Sur, California, Condor, Diablo, El Cap, Farallon, Grizzly, Mammoth, Monterey, Miramar, Pacific, Redtail, Redwood, Rincon, Shasta, Sierra, Skyline, Tiburon, and, of course, Yosemite.
