For someone like Carl Sagan his name is his most valuable asset. His reputation was being toyed with without his consent by a much more powerful entitity than him. He used the only defensive that the US is providing to individuals like him, that's the legal system. Apple's reaction confirmed their total disregard for his reputation and thus his source of income.

I find it shameful to suggest the weaker opponent the one who has been wronged by a bigger corporation or celebrity should always shut up and leave the more powerful entitity do what they want. I find that disgraceful.

From TFA: “When these internal codenames were first revealed in a 1993 issue of MacWeek, Sagan was concerned that the use of his name might be misconstrued as an official endorsement.”

But then they refused to acknowledge that he had not endorsed their product and had not received compensation after the name was revealed. While probably not illegal, IMO that was still morally wrong.

The name must have been used externally, or Carl Sagan wouldn't have known about it.

Then keep it internal.

As soon as it was published in an article, it was no longer internal, just a code name.

Unless there's something missing from the article, Sagan comes out of this looking, to me, like a bit of a BHA