To be honest I've never thought of it as a trademark thing. I know java is a trademark but can't think of other languages that are. I bet all the Microsoft dot net ones are.
This is the situation that the video game history foundation made their famous study, to have as ammunition for their debate in favor for libraries and research and historians. What a sad ending, I hope they find another way in the future.
Scala is the the first I used and I like it a lot. If I had more time I'd love to give ocaml a decent try but I don't think I can get into it these days.
Nice read and I agree with it. I was a big LimeWire user when it was popular and I don't think I was aware that Gnutella powered it.