Saturday, March 30, 2002
Overly agressive protection of slogan?
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "THOUGHT" @ 09:48 AM
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/03/29/BU173196.DTL
I am all for protecting intellectual property, be it code, slogans, logo's or designs. However, sometimes a corporation goes just a little too far in protecting their name, jingle or catch phrase. Palm did it last year when they went after fan sites that dared use the word "palm" in their URL. Once they realized their mistake, they quickly reversed course and welcomed these fan sites to use their name, but not before losing some of the more prominent ones.
Obviously, Intel has spent billions of dollars on their "Intel Inside" campaign. "Because of this, Intel argues, the linguistic construction '(Blank) Inside,' whether concerning state-of-the-art technology or a centuries-old spiritual practice, should uniquely belong to the chipmaker.
Now they have turned their arsenal of attorney's on a group of people in California that is helping prisoners. "Yoga Inside began with gang members in Southern California juvenile-detention facilities. The "inside" refers to incarceration. "But it has a double meaning," Stephens said. "It also refers to taking yoga within you. At no point in time was there a connection to Intel. It never even crossed my mind."
Now, if this were some technology or manufacturing company using this slogan, Intel should vigorously defend their property, but this is a little non-profit group actually trying to help make society a better place by aiding in the reformation of gang members in juvenile detention. I'd rather they had "Yoga Inside" versus "Hate Inside." Wouldn't you? Now that Intel has shown they will defend their property, perhaps it is time to back off of this particular case before they experience "Backlash Inside."
I am all for protecting intellectual property, be it code, slogans, logo's or designs. However, sometimes a corporation goes just a little too far in protecting their name, jingle or catch phrase. Palm did it last year when they went after fan sites that dared use the word "palm" in their URL. Once they realized their mistake, they quickly reversed course and welcomed these fan sites to use their name, but not before losing some of the more prominent ones.
Obviously, Intel has spent billions of dollars on their "Intel Inside" campaign. "Because of this, Intel argues, the linguistic construction '(Blank) Inside,' whether concerning state-of-the-art technology or a centuries-old spiritual practice, should uniquely belong to the chipmaker.
Now they have turned their arsenal of attorney's on a group of people in California that is helping prisoners. "Yoga Inside began with gang members in Southern California juvenile-detention facilities. The "inside" refers to incarceration. "But it has a double meaning," Stephens said. "It also refers to taking yoga within you. At no point in time was there a connection to Intel. It never even crossed my mind."
Now, if this were some technology or manufacturing company using this slogan, Intel should vigorously defend their property, but this is a little non-profit group actually trying to help make society a better place by aiding in the reformation of gang members in juvenile detention. I'd rather they had "Yoga Inside" versus "Hate Inside." Wouldn't you? Now that Intel has shown they will defend their property, perhaps it is time to back off of this particular case before they experience "Backlash Inside."
