Apple Tries for Rosetta Trademark


Macsimum News reports that Apple has applied for a trademark for Rosetta, the universal binary which will permit PowerPC applications to run on Mac OS X.

Apple has licensed Rosetta's engine from software developers Transitive. The software acts as a translator for PowerPC software so it will run on Intel processors. However, it is likely that Apple itself will do much of the development work on Rosetta, employing Transitive's engine.

Apple has also said previously that the Intel transition, via Rosetta, will be much easier than Carbon, which developers use to port Classic OS applications to OS X.

Analysis: We wonder what the upside is; after all, it's unlikely Apple will use Rosetta in its advertising - more likely only in its Apple Developer Connection literature.