Re: It kind of does
"It costs Spring nothing to deny on spurious grounds"
On the contrary, it has cost them at least one sale, and probably many other potential sales based on bad publicity. For a small company, where margins are thin, that might be enough to tip them into insolvency.
"permitting something that breaches a bogus, inadmissible but nevertheless approved trademark"
The trademarks in question are not bogus, nor are they inadmissible. They are legal and above board. This is not in question. What IS in question is how Spring has decided that one portion of said trademark is somehow the whole, "IBM" is a trademark. However, not even IBM's landsharks would consider suing Intel, Brother and Mitsubishi if they used their initial letter as a portion of their trademark and copyright package.