Oracle Won’t Release ‘JavaScript’ Without a Fight
Oracle will not voluntarily release its trademark on the word “JavaScript,” according to a recent Mastodon post by Deno.
Deno is an open source runtime for JavaScript, TypeScript and WebAssembly created by Ryan Dahl. Dahl also created Node.js, the JavaScript runtime environment.
Deno filed a petition with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to cancel Oracle’s trademark in November 2024. The filing contends that JavaScript is a generic, universal name for the programming language. Oracle neither controls nor has ever controlled the language’s specifications or usage, according to Deno’s claim.
“Next: they’ll file their Answer and we’ll start discovery to show how ‘JavaScript’ is widely recognized as a generic term and not controlled by Oracle,” the Mastodon post noted.
Dahl has also claimed that Oracle submitted fraudulent evidence to the USPTO when it renewed the JavaScript trademark in 2019.
Finally, the petition is premised upon the claim that Oracle, which acquired the trademark through its 2009 purchase of Sun Microsystems, has effectively abandoned it through non-use, which can be grounds for losing a trademark.
Google Releases Home APIs for Android Developers
If you’re looking for a weekend project, Google just released its Home APIs in a public developer beta for Android.
An iOS version will be available in the coming months, Google noted on its developer blog this week.
“During the public beta, developers can begin building and testing their apps with up to 100 users in preparation for the general availability launch of the Home APIs later this year,” wrote Senior Engineering Director Matt Van Der Staay, who heads the Google Home Platform. “We’ve built our Home APIs to help app and smart home developers bridge digital interactions and physical devices to deliver the next generation of delightful experiences.”
He goes on to share that the Home APIs include:
- Device and Structure APIs, which give you access to more than 600 million devices connected to Google Home and a single unified interface to manage and control both cloud-connected and Matter devices across Google Home;
- Commissioning API, which simplifies device set up with Fast Pair on 3 billion Android devices; and
- Automation API, which gives users the tools needed to create and manage home automations directly within your app, “leveraging extensive signals, commands, and
- Google-specific AI-driven capabilities for personalized and intelligent home experiences.
Eve, Nanoleaf and LG are among the Google partners that have launched experiences built on the Home APIs and offered via the Google Play store. Eve used it to create an autonomous heating schedule on Eve Thermo for their users. Nanoleaf used the Home APIs to give customers simple voice commands to turn on their Nanoleaf 4D screen mirroring light strip. LG used the APIs to integrate Google Home devices into their TV smart home offerings.
Node to Support TypeScript by Default
The open source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment Node.js will soon support TypeScript by default, without extra configuration, according to Total TypeScript blogger Matt Pocock.
He cites a recent pull request by Marco Ippolito and, in an update, notes that it seems Node will support this in version 23.6.0.
“Marco Ippolito, who has been driving TypeScript support in Node for the last year, landed a PR unflagging –experimental-strip-types in Node 23,” he wrote and then explained that on a practical level, that means developers can create an index.ts file containing TS syntax, like type annotations, and run node index.ts with no further flags.
“Node will strip out the types using a version of swc, then run the resulting code,” he continued.
He adds that it’s available now in the Node Nightly version.
