Monday, November 17, 2003		Feature

Don’t wear Intel outside

GARMENT makers in the Indian capital have been barred from manufacturing and selling clothing bearing the Pentium logo and brand name.

US-based Intel Corporation sued some small-time garment manufacturers in east Delhi’s Gandhi Nagar area, which has a large textile market, from using its Pentium logo and brand name on their T-shirts. A permanent injunction was sought against the manufacture and sale of such T-shirts.

As no one appeared on behalf of garment manufacturers, the Delhi High Court passed the order in favour of the California-based Intel, restraining garment manufacturers from using Pentium logo and name on the collars, shirt pockets, buttons, tags and boxes of men’s shirts.

Intel’s lawyer Manmohan Singh told the court that the world’s leading computer processor maker has acquired a unique recognition worldwide of its product, Pentium, which has no generic or dictionary meaning. Singh said Intel is a mammoth company, which spends billions on advertising its brand Pentium, and the New Delhi cloth makers had no right to piggy-ride its reputation for their own profit.

Intel had attached the samples of Gandhi Nagar made shirts along with the petition.

"Pentium is not just the brand name of the chip manufactured by Intel. It also manufactures technology related novelties, clothing, T-shirts, key chains, bags, hats, pens, umbrellas etc, bearing the brand name of Intel and Pentium," Singh told the court. — IANS