Apple has filed for a trademark on WebKit, the engine at the heart of Safari, documents show. While an open-source project, Apple is the creator and primary developer of the engine, which handles the critical task of page rendering. The technology has been adapted for use in several other platforms, including Google's Chrome and Android browsers, and HP/Palm's WebOS.
Apple's reasons for wanting to trademark WebKit are unknown, though they should not affect the use of the technology in non-Apple products. Approval may, however have an impact on what other companies can call their rendering engines. They may choose to associate engines with WebKit's predecessor, KHTML, or to create their own forks in the codebase.
Source: electronista
