The Name Game

A letter in response to John Colapinto’s article (October 3, 2011)

John Colapinto, in his article on the science of brand-naming, recounts Intel’s decision to give its new chip a name, Pentium, rather than a number (“Famous Names,” October 3rd). But Colapinto’s statement that Andy Grove, the former C.E.O. of Intel, found it “impossible to trademark a number” might be misleading. Many numbers are federally registered brand names, from “66” (registered by Phillips—now ConocoPhillips—for gasoline since 1929) to “747” (registered by Boeing for airplanes since 1971). Intel had trouble registering “486” and “586” for chips not because they are numbers but, rather, because “x86” (based on the Intel 8086) had become the standard name for a microprocessor architecture type made by many companies. As a result, “486” and “586” were viewed as descriptive or generic terms, not brand names, and Intel’s applications to register them were abandoned.

Zick Rubin

Newton, Mass.