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* Judge doubts Intel can defeat Intelmark trademark

SImon Hobson

Well if Intel won on that ... 

... the military would be worried.

Think of all the retraining required, what would they use as shorthand for 'intelligance' insteaf of 'intel' ?

And I guess that's where this marketing firm came up with their name, as "marketing intel" meaning intelligence on marketing issues.

Sorry Intel, I think you are ehibiting a distince lack of 'intel' on this one !

sleepy

Quite right . . . 

The judge is quite right to limit Intel's attempts to hijack a component of the language. "intel-" is the root of several long established dictionary words. Both organisations clearly hoped to benefit by association with intelligence, intellect etc. That takes precedence over a later additional association with Intel Corp. However, that defence does not work at all for anyone registering a mark reminiscent of "Kodak".

Attempting to hijack the language and prevent competitors using convenient terminology is an established activity of large companies - witness Microsoft with word, office, excel, windows etc.

For many years (and even today, for all I know) Intel printed materials included an absurd statement along the lines of: " i is a registered trademark of Intel, and may not be used without permission".

Perhaps Kodak should have taken this ancient joke to court: "What's bald and clicks? A Kojack Instamatic."

oops - showing my age.

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