SparkFun being hassled by SPARC and Sun

[Dave Flowerday]

I know that, like team 111, a lot of people on here use products from SparkFun Electronics on their robots. They're a great company and supporters of FIRST. Well, it turns out they're being harassed over their name (SparkFun) by some lawyers from SPARC International, who claim the name is too similar. According to the SparkFun website, SPARC International is owned by Sun Microsystems. I can't seem to confirm that, but Sun is obviously either an owner, partner, or customer of SPARC International since they use SPARC technology in almost all of their computer offerings.

I have bought many things from SparkFun and they seem like a great company. I think they reflect a lot of the ideals from FIRST, and I'd like to see them continue to exist. I feel like the only method I have to discourage this kind of behavior from companies like SPARC and Sun is to avoid their products. So I guess I'm bringing this issue to the attention of CD in case there are others who are happy customers of SparkFun who might wish to take this into consideration before using products (including the new Java support in the control system) from Sun and SPARC.