I wonder if the creators of open source software should claim trademark rights in the names of that software. "curl", "wget", "git", and "nginx", for just four examples, are probably distinctive enough in their areas of use to qualify. If the creators had trademark rights, they could then write "cease-and-desist" letters to ask others to stop using the names in confusing ways.

This wouldn't necessarily open up a trademark-troll sinkhole, because the creators of widely used software could, in their licenses, grant the use of the name to implementers of their packages.

The best way to claim trademark rights is to register the trademarks. But that's not necessary.

(Unrelated: Jeff Snover isn't a creepy guy; he's just trying to do the right thing.)