Intel sued over 'dual-core' branding

Intel is being sued in a trademark case over the use of the term "dual core" in its product labeling.

The lawsuit was filed last week by California-based ultramobile PC firm DualCor Technologies. The suit accuses Intel of misappropriating the DualCor trademark, with the result being that DualCor has been "deprived of the value of its trademark as a commercial asset."

DualCor filed for a trademark on its name in May 2004. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted the trademark in July 2006. DualCor claims Intel was aware of DualCor and its name since it was established in 2003. DualCor is seeking to have the case heard by a jury.

The PC maker is claiming damages against Intel and is seeking an injunction against any further trademark infringements.

While it has targeted the largest chipmaker that uses the "dual-core" description, other suppliers, such as AMD, Sun and IBM, sell similar products. At the time of this writing, DualCor said it could not say if it would pursue any other manufacturers.

Intel has rejected DualCor's claims. "Intel believes that DualCor's allegations are unfounded," a spokesman for the company said. "Intel will attempt to settle the matter amicably with DualCor but intends to defend this case vigorously if DualCor continues to pursue it."

It is not the first time the issue of dual-core processing has been at the center of a dispute.

In July, PC World escaped punishment from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after one of its national press advertisements appeared to suggest that dual-core Intel-based machines performed twice as fast as those with a single core. The person who made the complaint to the ASA claimed that, because of shared hardware components, Core 2 Duo machines would be no more than 1.7 times faster than machines with a single-core processor.

PC World successfully argued that the text "twice as fast" was linked to benchmarking against previous Intel chipsets.

Intel is currently marketing its new range of quad-core processors.

Antony Savvas of ZDNet UK reported from London.

[Neo Con]

Patent abuse at its worst

Wow. Why not just patent the word "processor" or "computer" or "silicon"? What a waste of time and money for the courts.

[WDS2]

Patents?

This is about trademarks, not patents. Read the article before commentingn ext time.

[hightechnh]

Trademark

You mean like this?
http://www.wmur.com/news/13997140/detail.html?rss=man&psp=news

I wonder if "hamburger" is still available!

[gsmiller88]

Isn't "dual core" a generic term?

Like "windows" when describing a typical GUI operating system? I
really don't see how DualCor will be able to win this case.

[as2319]

3 Words: Re Tar Ded

maybe I should trademark my name before someone sues me due to hot women calling it outloud in public.

DualCor... do they even have Dual Core technology? And guess what, they forgot to buy a vowel.

[Swimdude007]

Wow.

I can't believe the crap you hear these days. How can DualCor sue intel over using Dual Core???? They are two different spellings...they are jealous of the fact that Intel is a huge billion dollar company unlike themselves. I hope they lose miserably.

[Heebee Jeebies]

That is...

DualCor not Dual Core. Completely two different things. Just because something sounds a like doesn't mean when you trademark one you get all of them.

This is just another load of poo from a company that apparently doesn't have good enough products to sell and make a profit from so they have to go after things like this. Pathetic!

Robert

[evilbill1782]

Good grief.

So now technical terminology can be trademarked? ***?
That's like saying that because IBM use the term 'computer', "Dell Computer Inc" can sue them.
Stupid!

[chuck_whealton]

Re: Good grief

I'd have to agree with you. It's another example of how our court systems are abused.

Charles R. Whealton
Charles Whealton @ pleasedontspam.com

[cswor]

Watch out Dell

If IBM has seen your post, they probably have a team of lawyers together already. Dell, better get yours together.

[paulej]

Is dual core a trademark or description?

If Intel is using "dual core" as a trademarked name, perhaps that's a problem. But, I bet they always use numbers with it. "Dual core" alone is a generic description. Further, that generic description has been in use well before DualCor was founded in 2003. Even on CNET one can find articles referencing dual core from 2002:
http://news.com.com/Itanium+to+take+on+Alpha+influence/2100-1001_3-826527.html

Perhaps there are older ones, but I didn't go looking too hard.

In any case, it's clear that Intel has been talking about dual core technology for years, so perhaps DualCor ought to fault themselves for picking a word they knew Intel was using with its processors.

[boomslang]

Good reason for Intel to trademark quad-core...

and start producing them.

Woops, it was DualCor against what was an industry technical description of multi-core processors, namely a two-core or dual-core processor.

Someone needs to swat these suckers up the side of the head with a 16 lb attitude adjustment hammer for even bringing this up.

[skipperpma]

One is a name, the other a DESCRIPTION!

This is really sad, and it'll be even sadder if a judge doesn't thow them out of court and slap them with a fine for wasting the courts time.

[marccooper]

Can I Trademark The Name Frivilous Lawsuit?

Or how about DualFrivilousLawsuits like if they had sued Intel and AMD.