As I was tagged here, I'll respond briefly.

I think there's no real brand confusion of significance between the two names. The fact that the OP knows it'll be a surprise and spends so much time telling people here about that company pretty much says it all, IMO. I've worked in cryptocurrency for years and wasn't aware of them prior to the launch of Hive.

I have laughed at a couple people who were seriously concerned about the trademark claim, because I have a fair amount of experience in this area, and I never thought there was anything to be concerned about with that regard.

Nor do I think that the choice of the name "Hive" has any real positive or negative impact on Hive's success. The biggest issue I've seen is a few people on chain who keep complaining about it and whatever time someone else spends replying about it. I know that won't be a popular opinion with them, but that's how I feel about it. The time spent could be much more profitably focused on external marketing, in my opinion.

As a side note, I do agree that what does need to be done is focus on making Hive the most attractive platform for blockchain-based software development and marketing that aspect of it.