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K7 Renamed "Athlon"

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the marketing-for-dummies dept.

rippy writes "It seems like AMD is following in Intel's footsteps and giving a goofy name to their processors. Insted of K7, the name is now changed to "Athlon". I saw it on Ars. " I'm still waiting for chips to have model years just like Operating Systems (cough)

4 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The reason for the name... by Raphael · · Score: 3

    Yes, this is probably a trademark issue.

    Anything that is "too obvious" cannot be registered as a trademark. This includes:

    • A number (386, 486).
    • A single letter followed by a number, especially if it is part of some predictable series (i486, i586, K6, K7).
    • A common word or a combination of words that is too descriptive or that is already in common use in the area in which the trademark should be registered (for example, you could not register "fast computer" in the computer business, although you might be allowed to get that trademark for a door or a toilet seat).

    So if no other company has registered "Athlon" (in the computer business), then AMD can be sure that nobody else will sell a processor called K7.

    They will also have more control over the name. For example, if someone claims to have a device which is "Athlon-certified", AMD will have something to say about it (i.e. they could sue the guy if that claim is false). But if it was only "K7-certified", it would have been easy for anyone to say that they were refering to some other obscure chip that just happens to be also called K7 and they could get away with it.

    So from a trademark point of view, having the K7 renamed "Athlon" makes a lot of sense. Whether or not the name "Athlon" is good and will help selling the chip is another story...

    --
    -Raphaël
  2. Obviously... by jwriney · · Score: 3

    ...if you had a triple-processor box built with these things, you'd have a triathlon. *groan*

    --John Riney
    jwriney@awod.com

  3. Re:New... Athlon! With triple-cleaning power! by alkali · · Score: 3
    The Register has recently corrected this, noting that K7 is just the standard French abbreviation for cassette.

    (How this works: The French pronounce the letter K "kah", not "kay". Also, "seven" in French is "sept", and the "p" isn't pronounced.)

  4. The reason for the name... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3

    I'm surprised everyone's commented on the name they chose and no one's mentioned the legal reasons why a name is preferable to a 'series number.' A series number isn't trademarkable, the way a name is. Theoretically, someone could have come along and started selling "486" chips that had absolutely no connection to Intel's 486 chips... that would just 'happen' to be the other companies' series number, just as it was for Intel, and who could expect to trademark a number? On the other hand, no one could come along and start calling their own chips "Pentium," which is why those chips were called Pentiums rather than 586's. IANAL, though, so if I'm wrong, feel free to correct me.