Intel Suing More Companies For Trademark Infringement

from the gotta-keep-the-lawyers-busy dept

Fri, Nov 14th 2008 1:45am — Mike Masnick

Earlier this year, we mentioned that Intel was suing a travel agency for having the name Intellife Travel, despite the fact that trademark law is pretty clear that trademarks only cover specific areas of business, and Intel is not in the travel business. This wasn't the first time Intel had stretched trademark law, either. As we wrote last year, it was suing a jeans company as well. Law.com is running an article noting that Intel appears to have stepped up its trademark lawsuit campaign this year, filing 15 lawsuits already, including a recent one against Intellectric, an electrician in Southern California who has been using the name for years.

Intel, of course, claims it needs to sue to protect its name, but this is incorrect. It only needs to sue in clear cases of confusion or dilution. These names of companies in totally unrelated businesses (where there's no chance of confusion) are situations where there is no impact on Intel and they need not sue. There are some cases where it could make sense -- and I'll grant Intel's lawsuit against the research firm "Insider Intel" might make sense, given Intel's trademark on "Intel Inside," but many of these other lawsuits are ridiculous.

Yet, because many of the businesses are small, while Intel is huge, the businesses are forced to settle. Remember the travel agency? Rather than fight the lawsuit (which it almost certainly would have won), the company decided to settle, though it can't talk about the terms of the settlement.

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Filed Under: trademark
Companies: intel

17 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2008 @ 2:32am

wtf?

next thing you know they will sue some one for commenting that an article they read was intelligent.

its companies like those that make me wish for some type of "open source" hardware (what ever the proper term maybe).
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2008 @ 3:44am

I'm sorry but you can no longer use the word INTELigent. It's now a trademark and copywrite infrigement. Please allow 7 to 10 days for your lawsuit to arrive by mail.
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Liam Potter, 14 Nov 2008 @ 4:07am

how many people are still spelling copyright as copywrite?
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Vincent Clement, 14 Nov 2008 @ 4:44am

Re:
The ones that can't spell intelligent correctly ;)
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2008 @ 4:57am

Look no further than Nissan.com for an example of this.
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Greg, 14 Nov 2008 @ 5:25am

Re: Re:
Indeed. And most certainly they would incorrectly spell "misspell" as "mispell."
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pferland, 14 Nov 2008 @ 6:04am

This is why I will never buy any Intel products
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Joe, 14 Nov 2008 @ 6:35am

Intel TM enforcement
It's worth noting that by far the most trademark enforcement actions that Intel brings is not in court but rather in the Trademark Office.

Go to and search for "intel" in the party search field. Aggressive enforcement? You bet. Is it justified? Hard to say until you're in the ring fighting counterfeiters. people who are clearly trying to make a buck on your brand and, yes, those borderline cases where a person's mark brings Intel to mind but but maybe sorta not in a confusing way.
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Joe, 14 Nov 2008 @ 6:36am

Re: Intel TM enforcement
http://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/
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giff, 14 Nov 2008 @ 7:25am

Re:
Actually, there are open source hardware solutions

See for instance http://www.opensparc.net/
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2008 @ 7:30am

Re: Re:
interesting stuff thx for the link.
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OC, 14 Nov 2008 @ 7:32am

So according to Intel, when I see the label "Intel inside" I should be worried that someone has stuffed a pair of jeans in my computer?!
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2008 @ 7:35am

Re: Re:
interesting stuff thx for the link.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2008 @ 8:47am

Military Intel?
So, does this mean the military pay a royalty or something when they go in for briefings where they talk about intel reports?
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2008 @ 12:55pm

The new American Way - Where all other business fails, SUE SUE SUE!

Since the economy is at an all time low, these lawsuits continue to degrade it further, These people with these bullshit suits should be executed!

For the people! NOT THE CORPORATIONS!
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Nov 2008 @ 10:47pm

Re:
For the children! Oh won't someone please spare a thought for those poor intelligent children?
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trademark, 19 Nov 2008 @ 7:35pm

Trademark madness
This is just one more example of "if you *can* sue, you *should* sue." Sigh.
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