Is naming a software product the same as a book legally problematic?

Posted by Jake Petroules on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Jake Petroules
Published on 2010-05-31T06:51:15Z Indexed on 2010/05/31 6:52 UTC
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naming

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trademark

I came up with a name for a software product I'm developing. It's composed of two common English words put together (for example, Firefox, Silverlight, etc.). I Googled the name to see if it was being used by any other software product before committing to it. After finding none, I did notice that there is a book published around 60 years ago, by that same name. Would it be legally problematic to name my software product as such, or does it being a software product vs a book make it irrelevant?

PS - I know this isn't really a programming question, but naming is related to software development, isn't it? ;)

PPS - How do companies like Microsoft get away with naming things "Windows" and "Office"? Or are they just legally called "Microsoft Windows" and "Microsoft Office"? Do developer names always precede software product names? Would naming a software product "Jones Office" be illegal?

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