Slashdot Mirror
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.
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.
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".