When consumers begin hearing the word Athlon in computer ads this month, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. hopes they will connect it with AMD’s new microprocessor. The name was picked because it sounded a bit like athlete, with connotations of speed and power. But, as industry analyst Hesh Wiener points out, AMD is not as keen about a different association, with a material used in partitions that separate toilets in office bathrooms. It turns out that Athlon is a trademark registered to Trespa North America Ltd., a maker of office partitions in Poway, Calif., and a unit of the Dutch conglomerate Trespa International NV.
Drew Prairie, a spokesman for AMD in Sunnyvale, Calif., says his company knew about Trespa’s trademark on Athlon, but the company’s lawyers concluded there would be no confusion if it used the name to replace the code name K7 on its flagship chip. To be on the safe side, AMD registered the name AMD Athlon as the official name of the chip, which will make its debut in computers from Compaq Computer Corp and International Business Machines Corp. In September. The lawyers felt that bathroom partitions and microprocessors were very different markets, Mr. Prairie says.
