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posted by martyb on Sunday May 26 2019, @12:48PM   Printer-friendly
from the what's-in-a-name? dept.

AMD's RX 3080 has been rumoured for quite some time, a GPU name which is designed to 1-up Nvidia's RTX 20XX series in a literal sense, copying the tactics of the company's CPU division when they released their Ryzen-based X370 platform to compete with Intel's Z270 offerings.

The idea is simple, you see two products on a shelf and you look at the numbers. X370 must be better than Z270; the number is bigger, right? It's a simple marketing tactic, and it makes sense for AMD to reuse it within the graphics card market. AMD's naming schemes have moved from RX 580 to RX Vega 64 to Radeon VII; it's not like AMD has a defined branding scheme to follow within the GPU market anymore, so why not piggyback on Nvidia? Nvidia even went to the effort of changing GTX to RTX on the high-end, simply begging to be confused with AMD's established RX graphics lineup.

[...] Now, it looks like Nvidia wants to stop AMD's games, with recent trademark applications showing that Nvidia claims ownership of the numbers 3080, 4080 and 5080, at least within the world of PC graphics. This move appears to be Nvidia's attempt to stop Radeon calling their next graphics card the RX 3080, a name which would inevitably cause confusion when Nvidia releases their RTX/GTX 30XX series, which should include a model called the RTX 3080.

https://www.overclock3d.net/news/gpu_displays/nvidia_hopes_to_block_amd_s_rx_3080_with_a_new_trademark/1


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @01:05PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @01:05PM (#847879)

    How can you trademark a series of numbers?? Also can't amd can just use 3085?

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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @01:21PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @01:21PM (#847884)

    I thought the Intel 486 case speed that numbers cannot be trademarked.

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by Booga1 on Sunday May 26 2019, @01:54PM (3 children)

      by Booga1 (6333) on Sunday May 26 2019, @01:54PM (#847890)

      https://tedium.co/2017/05/18/intel-386-486-trademark-battles/ [tedium.co]

      In March 1991, the judge sided with AMD, invalidating Intel’s trademark on the 386 by claiming it was generic.
      ...
      But what did this all mean for Intel’s numbering scheme? It meant that it was in the market for a new name. The company attempted to register both “486“ and “586” with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, but ultimately abandoned the applications. The company also attempted to register the word mark i586, but abandoned the mark after it only received approval with the disclaimer “no claim is made to the exclusive right to use ‘586’ apart from the mark as shown.”

      2002

      The year that Dale Earnhardt, Inc. received a trademark for the number 1, a trademark related to the racing team’s No. 1 car. It’s a trademark which the late NASCAR racer’s company still owns today. It’s a reminder that, yes, you can in fact trademark numbers.

      • (Score: 2) by NateMich on Sunday May 26 2019, @03:03PM

        by NateMich (6662) on Sunday May 26 2019, @03:03PM (#847896)

        2002

        The year that Dale Earnhardt, Inc. received a trademark for the number 1

        Well, that's certainly begging to be invalidated. Of course, someone would have to actually challenge the use of "1" somewhere.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @04:05PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @04:05PM (#847907)

        The year that Dale Earnhardt, Inc. received a trademark for the number 1, a trademark related to the racing team’s No. 1 car. It’s a trademark which the late NASCAR racer’s company still owns today. It’s a reminder that, yes, you can in fact trademark numbers.

        I'm going to try to trademark number 0. My bank balance is always 0 so I think I've got a pretty good shot at it.

      • (Score: 2) by exaeta on Monday May 27 2019, @01:18AM

        by exaeta (6957) on Monday May 27 2019, @01:18AM (#848052) Homepage Journal

        A judge says numbers cannot be patented. A barely above minimum wage trademark administrator who is probably sleep deprived "grants" a trademark on a number.

        Obviously, the latter overrules the former, and such trademarks are now legally enforcable.</sarcasm>

        You can trademark e.g. "GTX 5080", but not "5080", regardless of whether or not you limit the target market.

        --
        The Government is a Bird