Inspiring

Answered

I am stumped on this IP rejection.

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
December 6, 2023
8 replies
2645 views

Hi Adobe community!

Recently (today) this image was rejected - "Intellectual Property Refusal" .. and I have no idea why..

Here's the description:

3d illustration of FPGA logic with the letters "FPGA" embedded into them. FPGA is the commonly used acronym for Field Programmable Gate Array.

Keywords: 3d illustration, array, asic, computers, computing, cpld, custom logic, electronic, field programmable gate array, fpga, gate, gate array, hardware, logic, programmable, semiconductor, technology

The image is not AI generated (fwiw). The image itself is based on a generic simplified concept for programmable logic and originated in my head. The acronym FPGA is an accepted industry term widely used and (not that it matters) there are plenty of other stock images that incorporate it.

Scratching my head. I'll probably abandon it and move on but would like to hear if anyone has any ideas.

Thanks!

Contributors

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Abambo

I know what FPGA is, as I'm a computer engineer. Looking into the trademark register, it is fairly empty. But it shows up.

ASIC is probably showing up as a trade name. Even as ASIC is also an acronym, a moderator could easily confound it to ASICS. And ASIC by itself is a registred trademark.

I would resubmit it, without the ASIC acronym.

For the image itself, submit a property release. That may be helpful.

The refusal for IP is an error in my view.

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

A blatant Chat GPT reply.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

Abambo

Community Expert

It's a mess with all those abbreviations. 😂 This is stock context, not technology context.

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer

Ricky336

Community Expert

The IP rejection has nothing at all to do with what you are saying and absolutely nothing to do with the IP address. IP here is Intellectual Property and not Internet Protocol!!!!!!

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

How about omitting text & just let customer's decide what, if any, text to use? Or replace what you have now with generic placeholder (Lorem ipsum...) text that the customer can edit in Illustrator.

When you cast a wide net, you catch more customers. See links below.

Hope that helps.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

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DarkClearSkyAuthor

Inspiring

Great suggestion and one that I would definitely follow up on except that the image doesn't (and can't) use vector graphics as its base. It was created via 3d modeling and then rendered into an image with ray tracing.

Abambo

Community Expert

If it still gets a refusal, you need to render without FPGA. That will, however, take away the fun.

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer

Ricky336

Community Expert

The problem with trademark names is that even something innocent like 'apple' can be confused with 'Apple', or 'Adobe' with adobe, or 'coke', with Coke, and so on.

Everyday terms can now be trademarked to mean something else and a ubiquitous word is no longer ubiquitous!

Abambo

Community Expert

Apple is going after each one using anyting wich apple in it's name, even restaurants. I got real coking coal refused (on a different stock database) because of an IP reason (have a Coke…). I had a long and extensive and fruitless discussion with their support. Ip refusals are sometimes simply for avoiding trouble, not exacly because they are correct.

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer

Ricky336

Community Expert

This has been an ongoing theme...

daniellei4510

Community Expert

According to a reddit thread, "Analogue registerd the trademark for their FPGA logo on the Pocket" (whatever that means).

Adobe Community Expert | If you can't fix it, hide it; if you can't hide it, delete it.

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DarkClearSkyAuthor

Inspiring

Perhaps the registration is for Analogue's FPGA logo - there is a unique FPGA stylized logo on their product. That would make sense.

Abambo

Community Expert

It's for sure a figurative mark. It's not a wordmark.

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer

George_F

Community Expert

It appears Analogue, Inc holds the trademark to "FPGA", at least what I can tell from my search results.

George F, Photographer & Forum Volunteer

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DarkClearSkyAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks for that info George ...

Hmm - they have a product called openFPGA.. and the label "FPGA" on their product.. but it seems to me that trademarking "FPGA" would be like trademarking the acronym "CPU" or "RAM" - it's ubiquitous. How would that work..?

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DarkClearSkyAuthor

Inspiring

I saw that too, but considered it as a figurative mark.

I'm sure that Adobe uses a spider search engine for searching at different trademark registers. It's easy. You feed the keywords, see the results and decide if it is enough. In this case, the fpga mark is an illustration, meaning that using the words fpga is allowed, but the specific illustration is protected. We used the same for "Metro", as this was a very crowded claim.

So in short, your use of FPGA does not violate any rights.

As a matter of fact, you got an IP claim, and the only way to find out if it is the FPGA wording would be to submit with minimal keywords, may be even leave out the FPGA in the keyword, and title.

And to answer @DarkClearSky's question: You won't be able to register any word that is a dictionary word and used commonly in standard language. So, my first search, when I got a tradename from someone who thought to be creative, was to go to Wikipedia and search there, inaddition to googling the word and searching multiple databases. So FPGA is probably not to protected. This, however, does not help you, when you get a refusal, as refusals are definitive.

Also: tradenames are in categories according to an (international) classification. A trademark can be registered in different categories and enjoys protection in those categories, here basically video game systems. Other's can use the same tradename for different classes, if there is no risk of confusion.

I could open a an ice cream shop and selling fpga ice cream, without infringing on the owner's trademark.

(this is in no case legal advice. my advice is only based on my working experience with trademarks, and I have no formal legal training.)

Super appreciate all the information. I'd be just amazed (and perhaps a bit worried) if somehow the acronym FPGA was legally claimed and protected.

Abambo

Correct answer

Community Expert

I know what FPGA is, as I'm a computer engineer. Looking into the trademark register, it is fairly empty. But it shows up.

ASIC is probably showing up as a trade name. Even as ASIC is also an acronym, a moderator could easily confound it to ASICS. And ASIC by itself is a registred trademark.

I would resubmit it, without the ASIC acronym.

For the image itself, submit a property release. That may be helpful.

The refusal for IP is an error in my view.

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer

D

DarkClearSkyAuthor

Inspiring

I had not considered that ASIC could be confused with the running shoe company but that makes complete sense. I guess we make assumptions based on our own backgrounds (I'm also a computer engineer). This is an excellent suggestion - I'll give your idea a try. Thanks!

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