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

[btarunr]

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.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[1Kurgan1]

This doesn't sound like it holds any water, much like Bethseda going to court over "Scrolls".

 

[W1zzard]

This 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!

 

[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?

 

[chaotic_uk]

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.

[url]http://www.techpowerup.com/img/12-01-21/188a_thm.jpg[/URL]

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 ?

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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...

 

[NC37]

Artic makes PSUs? That's news to me!

 

[jpierce55]

Artic makes PSUs? That's news to me!

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.

 

[rpsgc]

What a douchebag move by "Arctic".

 

[dj-electric]

Seriously Arctic, this is so god-damn stupid

 

[FreedomEclipse]

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

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.

 

[ensabrenoir]

So much DRAMA inthe TECH world

 

[Widjaja]

Looks like Arctic are joining the suing band wagon too.

I don't even relate Arctic with the word Fusion.

 

[Kreij]

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.

 

[eidairaman1]

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...

 

[DarkOCean]

This is stupid and lame.

 

[SirMango]

Arctic, you're so silly.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

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...

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.

 

[Steven B]

the llano sticker says fusion on it I am pretty sure.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

the llano sticker says fusion on it I am pretty sure.

nope, they dont

 

[ZoneDymo]

The should sue the sun, nuclear fusion and all that.

 

[Rowsol]

They just want some easy money. AMD will settle out of court.

 

[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.