Not to put too fine a point on it, but...
From Wikipedia...
History and Development
FireWire is Apple Computer's name for the IEEE 1394 High Speed Serial Bus. It was initiated by Apple and developed by the IEEE P1394 Working Group, largely driven by contributors from Apple, although major contributions were also made by engineers from Texas Instruments, Sony, Digital Equipment Corporation, IBM, and SGS Thomson (now STMicroelectronics).
According to Michael Johas Teener, original chair and editor of the IEEE 1394 standards document, and technical lead for Apple's FireWire team from 1990 until 1996:
The original FireWire project name was "Chefcat", the name of Michael Teener's favorite coffee cup.
There is lots more info there, it is obvious we are on the same page, although Apple does, in fact, hold the bsic patents on Firewire.
Regards,
Bill