BUSINESS
IBM's new server in name clash
06-10-2000
by Joe Lynam
IBM faces a possible legal challenge over the name chosen for its new range of servers, e-server, which it shares with a server product by little known North Carolina technology company Technauts.
The IBM range was launched in Dublin on Thursday but Technauts has been selling server solutions under the brand name eServer for over a year and possesses a registered trademark on the name since 1998.
The company intends to do whatever necessary to protect the name, Craig Pyne, Technauts vice-president of sales and marketing, told News.com.
IBM, which employs over 4,000 at its two Irish plants in Mulhuddart and Ballycoolin, Co Dublin, plans to spend USD75 million to promote the eServer brand this year and has budgeted a further USD225 million for marketing it in 2001.
Analysts believe that IBM's total financial commitment to the new brand name will exceed USD1 billion when all ancillary costs are considered, which would make a turnaround on the part of the world's largest technology conglomerate highly unlikely.
There is no real conflict between the names given that the "e" in IBM's version is inside a circle in accordance with the trademark IBM e-business marketing campaigns over the last three years, said an IBM spokesperson.
IBM, which enjoyed worldwide revenues in 1999 of USD87.5 billion and net income of USD7.7 billion, has not as yet received any legal communication from Technauts, whose chief executive officer Larry Deaton ironically spent 21 years with IBM.
"We know they're aware of us, because we've had many discussions with IBM in the past," Chris Pyne told News.com.
IBM, which started trading in New York in 1911, commenced operations in Ireland in 1956 and is currently managed by William Burgess, who also acts as president of the Irish employers' federation IBEC.
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