Saturday, January 21st 2012

Arctic To Sue AMD Over ''Fusion'' Brand Name

Swiss company Arctic (formerly Arctic Cooling), has used the brand name "Fusion" on its PSU products well before AMD's so-called "Fusion" APU family came to be. Arctic was smart enough to register its trademark, and is now piling up ammo to take AMD to court over alleged trademark infringement. Arctic acquired the brand name "Fusion" from Boot Up International Ltd., and its Fusion trademark is valid in Europe. Still a sizable market for AMD.

The interesting part is, AMD doesn't use "Fusion" as a brand name anywhere, except maybe its company slogan "The future is fusion", where "fusion" is used as a verb (fusion of various computing technologies to give a homogenous computing experience), and the company internally referring to its APU architecture as "Fusion", on the outside though, AMD brands its APUs under its Vision processor family, with no "Fusion" branding anywhere, except the company slogan.
Further, AMD even renamed its "fusion architecture" to "heterogeneous architecture". Arctic could have grounds to claim that AMD's use of "fusion" may have hurt its brand or sales. This is one Arctic fishing expedition you don't want to miss.
Source: Heise.de
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52 Comments on Arctic To Sue AMD Over ''Fusion'' Brand Name

#1
1Kurgan1
The Knife in your Back
This doesn't sound like it holds any water, much like Bethseda going to court over "Scrolls".
Posted on Reply
#2
W1zzard
1Kurgan1This doesn't sound like it holds any water, much like Bethseda going to court over "Scrolls".
wait till they sue apple for scrolling and win!
Posted on Reply
#3
Hokum
Seeing that artic make money selling products to cool AMD processors and graphics cards doesn't this seem a little silly to sue the company which you make products for?


Why not sue ford for the Ford Fusion? Or cadburys for the Fusion choc bar?
Posted on Reply
#4
chaotic_uk
btarunrSwiss company Arctic (formerly Arctic Cooling), has used the brand name "Fusion" on its PSU products well before AMD's so-called "Fusion" APU family came to be. Arctic was smart enough to register its trademark, and is now piling up ammo to take AMD to court over alleged trademark infringement. Arctic acquired the brand name "Fusion" from Boot Up International Ltd., and its Fusion trademark is valid in Europe. Still a sizable market for AMD.

The interesting part is, AMD doesn't use "Fusion" as a brand name anywhere, except maybe its company slogan "The future is fusion", where "fusion" is used as a verb (fusion of various computing technologies to give a homogenous computing experience), and the company internally referring to its APU architecture as "Fusion", on the outside though, AMD brands its APUs under its Vision processor family, with no "Fusion" branding anywhere, except the company slogan.

www.techpowerup.com/img/12-01-21/188a_thm.jpg [---]

Further, AMD even renamed its "fusion architecture" to "heterogeneous architecture". Arctic could have grounds to claim that AMD's use of "fusion" may have hurt its brand or sales. This is one Arctic fishing expedition you don't want to miss.

Source: Heise.de
is this just going to hurt them selfs and give them a bad name ?
Posted on Reply
#5
RejZoR
Lol, what a nonsense. What's next, Ford suing Artic for using the same name as their car (Ford Fusion). If Artic was selling CPU's, that would be sort of understandable. But c'mon, what have PSU's in common with CPU's? Nothing at all. And AMD Fusion is called "fusion" because it actually means what it says. A fusion of CPU and GPU. And what has "fusion" to do with Artic's PSU? Are they maybe cold fusion powered? No. Hot fusion maybe? No again. So what is it?
Allt hese brand names rights are getting ridiculous.
Posted on Reply
#6
Super XP
What's with everybody suing everybody. Arctic needs to thank AMD if anything. Drop it Arctic while you still have a chance, if not I can see AMD counter suing Arctic for waisting it's time with this nonesense.
Posted on Reply
#7
RejZoR
Maybe we should remind them about the Philco scenario. They prevented Philips from using its name in the USA because Philips somehow sounded too similar to Philco (yeah right). Why am i mentioning this? Because Philips later acquired Philco... owned. I don't see much problem for AMD to just acquire Artic if they'll be too irritating...
Posted on Reply
#8
NC37
Artic makes PSUs? That's news to me! :D
Posted on Reply
#9
jpierce55
NC37Artic makes PSUs? That's news to me! :D
and why they need to sue! It is stupid. I can think of several Fusion products and a Fusion name brand that have existed for years! AMD should drop Arctics rights to make AMD cooling products! I have doubts that psu division could keep them from sinking.
Posted on Reply
#10
rpsgc
What a douchebag move by "Arctic".
Posted on Reply
#11
dj-electric
Seriously Arctic, this is so god-damn stupid
Posted on Reply
#12
FreedomEclipse
~Technological Technocrat~
hmmmm how bout suing Gillette for this....?



Im not sure when it was released. but there are youtube videos that were posted 4-5years back...

a wasted oppotunity for ArcticTroll :laugh:




Fortunately I know the difference between a clean shave and a PSU that functions better as a smoke box (fair few reviews say their PSUs went up in smoke when stressed - Im quoting for Bit-tech's review here) then powering anything.
Posted on Reply
#14
Widjaja
Looks like Arctic are joining the suing band wagon too.

I don't even relate Arctic with the word Fusion.
Posted on Reply
#15
Kreij
Senior Monkey Moderator
If AMD is not using "Fusion" as branding when selling their products and it is only an internal designation, I'm not sure that Arctic has much of a case. Kind of hard for consumers to confuse the products if it's nowhere on the packaging.
Posted on Reply
#16
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
Fusion was initially coined in scientific world for the phenomina of 2 protons merging into 1 etc. Cant really copywrite "FUSION" Bet After this pissing contest you will no longer see AC coolers on AMD video cards or cpus... They should be definitly thanking Several Amd powered video card companies and the select few nvidias too for using their coolers as a non ref design...
Posted on Reply
#19
FreedomEclipse
~Technological Technocrat~
eidairaman1Fusion was initially coined in scientific world for the phenomina of 2 protons merging into 1 etc. Cant really copywrite "FUSION" Bet After this pissing contest you will no longer see AC coolers on AMD video cards or cpus... They should be definitly thanking Several Amd powered video card companies and the select few nvidias too for using their coolers as a non ref design...
I dont think AMD would be so quick to cut off a contract/partnership that potentially brings them a lot of money - and every knows after all the AMD BD shenanigans - they NEED money.

is can end either of 2 ways (or 3)

#1 - AMD laughs it off and business carries on as usual with neither company admitting that anything happened

#2 AMD decides to give Arctic Cool a slap on the wrist by charging them more for the right/license to build cooling solutions for their CPU's & GPUs - otherwise known as Arctic Cools bread and butter or to demand higher royalty fee's every time someone purchases one of their coolers.

OR worst case scenario if AMD is in rage mode

#3 cut all ties with Arctic cool and take either Zalman, Prolimatech or Gelid as partner to make coolers for their non ref cards. but Zalman are pretty stagnant in the GPU cooling arena at the moment so i dont really know if it would be a good idea to partner up with.


though i doubt #3 is going to happen.
Posted on Reply
#20
Steven B
the llano sticker says fusion on it I am pretty sure.
Posted on Reply
#21
FreedomEclipse
~Technological Technocrat~
Steven Bthe llano sticker says fusion on it I am pretty sure.
nope, they dont

Posted on Reply
#22
ZoneDymo
The should sue the sun, nuclear fusion and all that.
Posted on Reply
#23
Rowsol
They just want some easy money. AMD will settle out of court.
Posted on Reply
#24
suraswami
Nah just sue English for having a word 'Fusion' in their dictionary. No wait lets sue 'Dictionary' too.

Idiots, if you can't sell ur product, then its simple, people know that there are better products out there.
Posted on Reply
#25
OneCool
If your products dont sell just sue your employer :rolleyes:
Posted on Reply
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