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'?"
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".
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