Branding “Intel”
March 15, 2010
After retiring from the NYPD’s Intelligence Division in 2007 and spending the next 15 months in Iraq, “conducting human intelligence” about who was planting roadside bombs, Sgt. Chris Strom settled down in Roanoke, Virginia, and opened a private investigations agency. He called it Intel Investigations.
One of the first people he heard from was Christopher E. George, the senior attorney in charge of trademarks and brands for the Intel Corporation. He warned Strom that he had misappropriated the “Intel” brand.
It may have sounded like a joke, but Christopher E. George wasn’t kidding. According to news reports, Intel, the semi-conductor giant, files five to 10
trademark lawsuits each year. In 2008, Intel sued 15 companies with the word “intel” in their names.
“The Intel name and trademark is among the most famous in the world and is entitled to a broad scope of protection under the U.S. and state intellectual property laws,” George wrote Strom in January.
In another letter to Strom this month, George continued to spew the company line: “The law obligates us to enforce our trademark against infringing third party uses. Failure to do so could mean the loss or rights of our famous mark.
“Your use is not a fair use of the term ‘intel’ as a reference to military intelligence. Your use is an impermissible truncation of the word ‘intelligent’ used in connection with private investigation related services. Just as you would not say that someone is very ‘intel,’ [meaning intelligent], your use of ‘intel’ to denote ‘intelligent’ investigations is a ‘fanciful’ or ‘arbitrary’ use of the term and thus is not a merely descriptive fair use.”
George tried to persuade Strom to have a telephone conversation.
“I have often found that discussing matters over the phone can lead to better understanding of opposing positions and quick resolution of adverse matters,” he wrote Strom. “Such conversations can always be [and often are] memorialized in writing.”
Strom wasn’t buying. He no more wanted to talk to Lawyer George than George wanted to talk to Your Humble Servant. Enter Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy, who handles inquiries related to legal matters.
“It’s about keeping the brand name,” said Mulloy. “Billions of dollars are involved. We have an aggressive program to protect the copyright. We have had tons of cases like these – literally in the hundreds.”
Mulloy said he did not know how many cases, if any, Intel had won in court. The majority, he said, do not end up in litigation. Referring to Strom and Intel Investigations, Mulloy said, “We are not into threatening people. We want to work with him.”
In a telephone interview, Strom said, “I’m David fighting Goliath.” He fired off the following letter to the company: “According to the dictionary, ‘Intel’ is an abbreviation from the word ‘Intelligence’, and is commonly used in both military and police forums to describe information respective to the type of collection. As evidenced from my resume, my background is definitively from both military and law enforcement Intelligence fields.”
So who’s right? More important, who will win?
If past is prelude, it doesn’t look good for Strom. In 2008, Intel sued Barry Hood, a California electrician, who called his company “Intellectric.” Intel sought $50,000 in damages. Hood couldn’t afford the legal fees and accepted $3,500 from Intel to change the name.
Obviously, Intel has the resources to drag Strom into court and bankrupt him. But who made the 40-year-old company King of the Dictionary?
A New York attorney, with expertise in copyright and trademark law, said, “The problem for Intel is that the word ‘intel’ exists as slang for intelligence and has been for many years. It precedes the existence of Intel by decades, if not centuries. What they [Intel] are doing may be understandable but they cannot expect to take a word that has existed in colloquial vernacular in English and obtain a monopoly on its use.
“There has to be some middle ground. Where does it lie? You won’t know until a judge or jury tells you.”
KELLY’S CONTROL. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly is a control freak. Anyone who knows him, knows that.