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Small Artist Group Gets Nastygram from Intel
SuperBanana writes "According to a story in the Boston Globe, Intel feels a MA artist co-op gallery's name is "too similar to Intel's advertising slogan." The gallery name: "The Art Inside Gallery". Intel has said it will pay for the costs of the name change, and the artists are debating the hassle and expense of getting a lawyer, but 16 artists don't stand much of a chance against one of the world's largest legal departments. This is not the first time Intel has threatened legal action over trademarks. Maybe the EFF's Chilling Effects Clearinghouse can help. Is anyone else getting tired of the bully called 'corporate America'?"
I just wanted to comment here on my submission, since I try to keep 'em as short/to the point as possible(by the way, apologies for the earlier goofs in my story submissions, doh! Hopefully got this one right!)
As I said in the submission, this isn't the first time Intel has gone after people, though some of the cited examples are better than others; for example, there's the "FACE" guy, who was basically harassing 27,000 Intel employees via email...but on the other hand, there's cases like Intel going after a Yoga group. There were a few cases I didn't list, like the case against a company making "Yoda Inside" stickers. That's a clear spoof, but a better case than a bunch of artists with a little art gallery.
IANAL, but I could swear one of the key issues in trademark cases is whether a)there will be damage to the trademark holder from b)confusion with the trademark holder. Ie, someone thinks I'm Intel and I sell computers, and Intel looses money off that(or it's reasonably forseeable that they will.)
The FACE site in particular burns me- for example, they harp on Intel employee suicides; FACE sees conspiracies everywhere, it seems, and they take a perfectly acceptable letter from management to employees(listing places employees can get help, and encouraging employees to think about each other) and talk nothing but trash about it. About the only thing that's truly interesting(and relevant to my submission) on their site is their compiled list of all the trademarks Intel has registered...which, unfortunately, I can't find now for the life of me. It had some amusing stuff, like trademark registrations in the cooking/household appliance sector, leather goods, etc...really weird stuff.
Still, I think it all boils down to the all-too-prevalent attitude among corporate legal departments- mainly, if you let one little thing through, it sets you up for getting whammed by a bigger fish who points to the little case, and says "Why didn't you fight THEM? Hmm?"
My motivation for submitting this story was that I wanted to get this as much publicity as possible- and maybe, if the negative PR outweighs the perceived benefit of "smacking down every case for the sake of precidence", Intel will back down and leave 'em alone. Let's make some fuss, spread the word...
Please help metamoderate.
so silly... i'd never confuse the two. I'd never confuse Yoga with Intel either.
I think it's safe to say Intel has...
BULLSHIT INSIDE
Then obviously they should get the necessary permissions and then have Intel pay for changing the name to "The Opteron Gallery".
Or the "AMD Will Kick The Ass Of That Other Company With All The Butthead Lawyers" Gallery.
How come these BIG MEGACORPS never just offer a non-exclusive license to the LITTLE GUYS to use names like "NothingToDoWithSemiconductors Inside". They could charge a token amount like $50. Didn't netscape do this for free with its logo onc, to a guy who wrote a program?
???
That way they could 1) protect their mark in the future and 2) pull their heads out from deep within their asses.
Or maybe they actually *DO* want to own every use of the "*** INSIDE" phrase. In that case, they suck monkey bizzalls, and I will immediately boycott all their products (except for those times when I need to buy one).
...they had the option of being complete jerks, and didn't.
...trademark law requires a company to take proactive steps to protect a landmark, or else you lose the value of that trademark
Of course they excuse they give is a pile of crap.
While this is true, the only way it could damage them is if this art co-op became so pervasive that AMD could say "AMD Inside" and claim that since the artists use it non-infringingly that they somehow have the right. This would be weak.
If Intel really wanted to play nice with these people, and actually believed they were at risk, they could licenses the dubious "thing Inside" trademark to them for a dollar a year for artistic use only. This would satisfactorily establish the precedent of ownership, and that of licensing. When charging AMD for the use of it they could simply claim that the rates are a little steeper for direct competitors.
I'm not a lawyer but it seems to me that they itch to be bullies and their P.R. department has encouraged them to take what is probably a cheaper solution.
The one hopeful note I hear in this is that our whining works. If they didn't know there'd be a serious blacklash for just crushing these people under mounds of paperwork, the P.R. department's input probably wouldn't have been so visible.
Is anyone else getting tired of the bully called 'corporate America'?
I'm good for another few years, thanks. The trick is not to think about it.
Keep your packets off my GNU/Girlfriend!
Intel's is not one of the top 100 legal departments in the country. They have about 60 lawyers worldwide. AOL has 353, HP has 171, and Citigroup has 1200 (at least, they did as of August 2000).
But don't let the facts get in the way of your ranting.
I Can't Believe It's A Law Firm, LLP does not necessarily endorse the contents of this message.
I did mine. Just sticked a "Intel Inside" sticker onto a street garbage can.
There are lots of places where you can do it. Trashcans, water closets, a dead and rotting goat body, the possibilities are endless.
I don't consider 4 emails harassment.
Fight Spammers!
My impression is that Intel's position is utterly without merit. Could Coca-Cola ever have prevented Pepsi-cola from using the term -cola? No.
Over a period of years, I have developed the impression that it is only the microprocessor department of Intel that is skillful. The other departments seem to me mostly good at avoiding work.
I've seen numerous instances of poor marketing from Intel. Intel marketing ran the Intel consumer division into the ground, for example, in my opinion. The software for an Intel video camera for connection to a PC was missing key features, so that numerous buyers took them back to the store. That's just one of many examples. After years of amazing lack of perception such as this, Intel closed its consumer division.
I called and talked to one Intel employee and showed him how Intel was marketing a PC Card networking product in a misleading way. The card would not work with many of the most popular laptops, but that information was at a URL mentioned in a package insert available only after the customer had opened the box. The employee said, "We are updating our web site soon." One year later, I called and happened to get the same employee. I had his name in my notes. I mentioned the same problem, but didn't tell him I had seen it before. He said, "We are updating our web site soon."
My overall impression is that Intel's marketing department, and most departments outside of the processor and processor support design departments, are major slackers. They have often given me many, many excuses why things can't be done in a more efficient way.
For example, Intel's motherboards are sold at Fry's and many other retail stores. However, several Intel employees and I have proven that it is not possible to get the motherboard part number from any of the publicly accessible web sites. It is possible to get close, such as 815EEA2 motherboard (an old one that I remember), but it is not possible to get the trailing digits that define what options are on the motherboard from a publicly available Intel web page. I have often asked why this information must be secret. No answer. Simply no one wants to be responsible.
I've seen many such examples of Intel's marketing that I consider utterly foolish. Intel employees often use words or acronyms in their conversations with me that have been invented inside Intel. For example, "IPD". Intel employees often talk like I should know how Intel is organized.
I haven't spent much time considering the Itanium processor. However, whether or not it is a good processor, the fact that people routinely call it the "Itanic", without providing any explanation, shows that Intel's marketing is poor.
It's sad, really. Intel seems to be just one of the many U.S. companies that is self-destructive. I buy Intel motherboards because I think there is less potential for problems when the motherboards come from the company that made the processors. However, while working with Intel products I have often been in the uncomfortable position of seeming to be more positive about Intel than Intel is about itself.
As you may have noticed in the subject line, my trademark is on this comment. "Futurepower Comment Inside" is my trademark. It does not infringe on Intel's trademark, since no one can possibly confuse a name for a comment with a name for a microprocessor. One reason they cannot confuse it is that my trademark says "comment".
If you are ever at an outdoor party, don't say, "There are food and soft drinks inside", because that infringes Intel's trademark. If you have a theatre in a hot climate during the summer, don't use your sign that says, "Air conditioning inside", because Intel owns anything that ends with the word "inside".
Pretty soon anything that says something is inside will not be allowed. You won't be able to say, on a box for example, that something is inside the box. "Toy Inside," and especially "Chip Inside" will both be outlawed. I'm tired - so sorry if this made no sense.
1. Intel inside. Idiot outside.
2. What?? I thought Intel inside was a warning mandated by the Truth in Advertising laws?!
You'll probably get better price-performance from AMD anyway. I've been using AMDs since the 286 generation... running a Duron now. I've had zero problems attributable to a non-Intel processor, though I did have to install a patch for the K6-350.
If you don't need good floating-point performance, check into VIA... last I heard, they run so cool they don't need cooling fans, either.
Sometimes there's no option other than to buy from thugs, but in the x86 market, you've got two other choices. How many do you need?
If you think it necessary to buy from "industry dominant vendors" who set the "standards", what are you doing here?
Tech Public Policy stuff
Hmmm, tiny little artists' cooperative gets squashed for their "Art Inside" gallery, but what about J.C. Penney's "It's All Inside" slogan?
Intel gets its slogan stolen. Intel defends its name. Defending is bad.
I differ with Ken. He is of the belief that if it is on the internet, you can just send email to it -- same as spammers. I believe that his acts are protected under the NLRB, DOL, and anti-discrimination laws, and encouraged by section 8 of the EEOC compliance guide.
In any case, it is not commercial.
Fight Spammers!
Oops! I accidently bought my CPU from this artist gallery instead of from a computer parts manufacturer, like I originally intended. Hey!!! Wait a minute! "Artists Inside"? Those deceptive, malicious bastards! *shakes angry fist*
Heheh, while the complaints in this thread about evil lawyers and trademark suits, I glance up to the top of my browser window, and what do I see? Ah, a banner ad on Slashdot for trademark attorneys and personal injury lawyers. Too funny.
Because we hate intel, so it's all good.
Intel employees often use words or acronyms in their conversations with me that have been invented inside Intel. For example, "IPD".
I didn't know Intel worked in virtual reality optics. Last time I checked (that is, about the time Nintendo tried and failed to sell Virtual Boy tabletop game consoles), "IPD" referred to "intra-pupil distance", one of the key metrics used to calibrate binocular displays such as night vision goggles and VR goggles. Another meaning of "IPD", or intra-pupil distance, is useful for classifying races of cartoon characters.
(/me checks Google) Oh, you must mean an Intel product dealer. Why doesn't Intel just call them "dealers"?
Will I retire or break 10K?
Firstly, I saw this Dell ad where at the end, it had the 'intel inside' logo animation, with the standard 'intel inside music' and light streaks emanating from it.
And ad immediately after it was something like this:
It showed a black screen, and the following words appeard with typing sounds: "What makes one computer more powerful than another?"
Then it showed that same intel inside clip except that it read 'advertising inside' .
It ended with "Advertising. The way great brands get to be great brands."
Why doesn't intel sick the lawyers on these fellas?
(Btw, I was recording the TV signal to DV at the time so I saved the clip as a 1.8 MB mpeg-4 .mov file. E-mail me if you want to see it.)
is that all the artists were dressing up in blue jumpsuits, dancing around to techno music while screwing in lightbulbs, and calling it performance art.
I'm kidding, I'm kidding.
My Webcomic: Asylum on 5th Street
For me, it's a somewhat medieval experience talking to Intel marketing people. They have acronyms that someone invented inside Intel, and they use them in conversation, and they become unhappy if other people don't know the acronyms and don't participate in their private reality.
I suppose they call them IPDs instead of dealers because someone at Intel is trying to inflate the importance of his department.
I've sometimes been so annoyed at Intel marketing incompetence that I have thought of applying for the position of marketing vice president at Intel. I could hardly do worse than whoever they have now, even if I had a whole string of bad days.
I've thought of writing a short presentation to the Intel board of directors showing the ways the Intel marketing department could be improved. Of course, whoever is in charge is undoubtedly ignorant of marketing and suspicious of marketing, or he would not have let things become so disfunctional. I would not be hired because the most important thing to him would be hiding his ignorance. However, the presentation would at least make the point to the board that something should be done.
Better for me to do something positive than just be irritated.
Intel has made an enormous and wonderful contribution to the world. It is painful to me to see the company become self-destructive.
In my opinion, the problems are far, far worse than I've said here. In my experience, it is impossible to get the full part numbers so that I can order Intel motherboards from a distributor. I have more than once spent 2 hours on the phone trying to get all the info I need. There are errors on Intel's web site. No one cares about them. (Although I have reported broken links that have been fixed.) Without the proper part numbers, I cannot be sure of what I'm getting from the distributor. One answer: Order motherboards with Intel chipsets from Gigabyte.
The last paragraph of the parent post should have read, "Alternatively, if you agree with Intel's view of reality, don't say at an outdoor party, "There are food and drinks inside",
... have stickers that clearly say "Linux inside" with a nice cute penguin.
Non coincidentally, I have only AMD processors.
Intel: go back to work, I am tired of companies throwing out of the window common sense in the name of protecting trademarks that are pathetic for lack of invetiveness.
Honestly, what are your lawyers thinking? Is any one with common sense left in any big coroporations?
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I know many people will be skeptical about what I've said here about the lack of expertise of the Intel marketing department. So, at the bottom of this comment is the code of an HTML page. A link to this page was received this morning from Intel.
The URL of the page is http://program.intel.com/integrator/na/en/disti_l
Anyone can make a mistake. However, mistakes like this from Intel's marketing department are common.
This post was created for boatboy by a tribe of Bob Ross Midgets.