Duck Inside: the Intel trademark police
“Duck Inside” is admittedly a silly headline, but according to Intel, one that trademark law demands a defensive response to. Let the cease and desist watch begin. The Associated Press reports:
SHELBURNE FALLS, Mass. (AP) Computer chip giant Intel Corp. is asking an artists’ cooperative in this small town to change its gallery name, claiming the name is too similar to the company’s advertising slogan.
The Art Inside gallery, which opened its doors four years ago, had six members at the beginning. Membership has now swelled to 17 potters, sculptors, painters and jewelers.
Clearly, the similarities between “Art Inside” and “Intel Inside” are the word “inside” and the fact that another word precedes it. So why all the fuss over “inside”?
“At the end of the day, trademark law requires a company to take proactive steps to protect a landmark, or else you lose the value of that trademark,” said Intel spokeswoman Christine Vermes.
So now Art Inside joins the ranks of the Yoga Inside Foundation and other companies whose names are too close for Intel’s comfort.
Trademark law allows Intel to own “Intel” and “Intel Inside” and to be protected from anything so similar that it would create confusion, but it does not grant them ownership of “inside” or all two word phrases where the second word is “inside.”
Toby Kusmer, a Boston intellectual property attorney, said the pursuit of Art Inside was a “stretch.”
“There’s very little likelihood of confusion,” he said. “Would someone assume the gallery was affiliated with Intel? I don’t think so.”
We don’t think so either, any more than we think a nonprofit that leads Yoga sessions inside prisons would be associated with Intel. And we doubt Intel does. But it’s clear that the implied possibility of a lawsuit from Intel is enough to spook most sane folk into changing their name, thus upping Intel’s brand equity by keeping the word “inside” off the streets.
