December 18, 2006
Controversy - real or manufactured - surrounds the name 'spybot'. Staunch defenders of 'Spybot - Search & Destroy' claim spybot is the name of a product and they condemn antivirus vendors for using the term Spybot worm. And the developer of Spybot-S&D, Patrick Kolla, complained in June 2003 that another company threatened to enforce trademark privileges and prevent Kolla from using the name in his product. Still others claim that it is Patrick himself who has trademarked the term spybot. With all the controversy, it seemed time to put some myths to rest.
Myth 1: Patrick Kolla first coined the term spybot in reference to his product, Spybot - Search & Destroy.
False. Searching Google Groups for the first instance of 'spybot' reveals this March 27, 1990 post which lays down the rules for robots in TinyMUD (a TinyWorld Multi-User Dungeon or Dimension game). Specifically, the post states: "SpyBot is now in accordance with these rules, except #4 for certain commands." (MUDs were the precursor to today's MMORPGs (Massive Multi-Player Online Role Playing Games) such as World of Warcraft (WoW).Myth 2: InBox tried to trademark the term spybot and prevent Patrick Kolla from using it.
False. On June 12, 2003 - nine days before his website post accusing InBox of trying to trademark the term - it was Patrick Kolla that trademarked the term (rather like Paris Hilton trying to trademark 'that's hot'). Even so, he wasn't the first. According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, that honor goes to Tradewinds Enterprises, Inc., which filed a trademark for use with a toy action figure in 1994, abandoning the trademark in 1997. Shortly thereafter, the trademark was taken up by one Michael Lawrence, this time for a transforming toy action figure, that trademark later abandoned in February 2001. And since June 12, 2003, it's been Kolla who holds the trademark for 'spybot', despite any protests to the contrary on his website.
So what does the spybot in Spybot-S&D really mean? According to this post from Kolla in alt.comp.freeware - announcing the release of Spybot-S&D v1.1 circa October 2002, spybots are "little modules that are responsible for the ads many programs display".
So there you have it. From MUD to action figures to safer-networking.org's ad removal software, spybot is a widely used term that's been in existence far longer than the software that currently bears its name.
