Would You Confuse A Microprocessor With A Jazz Festival?
from the probably-not... dept
The point of trademark law is to prevent confusion or someone thinking that an endorsement had been made when it hadn’t. So, would you confuse a music festival with a microprocessor? Probably not. The Tanglewood Music Festival is a very famous music festival held in Massachusetts each year. I know people who try to go every year. However, my first thought on hearing that Intel’s code name (note: not actual product name) for a new processor was Tanglewood was not that the music folks had anything to do with the offering. Who would think that a music festival would be endorsing a processor – and if they were, who would actually care? However, the lawyers at Tanglewood were concerned, and rather than fight it, Intel has changed the code name of the chip to Tukwila, keeping with their theme of code naming projects after locations in the Pacific Northwest.
Comments on “Would You Confuse A Microprocessor With A Jazz Festival?”
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> Would You Confuse A Microprocessor With A Jazz Festival?
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Tukwila maybe trademarked and Intel just hasn’t heard word of it like that prison inmate in Missouri who sue the judge for using his name and Rosa Parks suing Outkast 😉
Wait a minute...
…so yer’ sayin this was resolved without a lawsuit?
Trademarks
This reminds me of the great story from a few years back of Apple naming a project “Sagan,” in honor of the astronomer Carl Sagan. Sagan got wind of the project and sued Apple for unauthorized use of his name. Apple then renamed the project “Butthole Astronomer,” upon which Sagan re-sued for defamation. At this point the judge told everyone to go home and stop wasting his time.
Goin' to Tukwila
There was an article in the Seattle Times several years back that “going to Tukwila” had become code for having sex (I personally never heard it). The city of Tukwila was pretty pissed and was trying to find a way to stop it.