Response to Office Action

The Examining Attorney has refused registration of the mark under

 § 2(d) of the Trademark Act with respect to a likelihood of confusion with U.S. Registration Nos. 2,833,574 and 2,855,484 1,889,993 ("the Cited Registrations") owned by Integrated Silicon Systems Limited.  Applicant, however, asserts a lack of a likelihood of confusion between the instant application and the Cited Registrations, and respectfully requests reconsideration in view of the arguments set forth below. 

Applicant's mark AMPHION identifies goods such as CIRCUIT BREAKERS AND POWER CONTROLLERS FOR USE IN THE TRANSPORTATION AND AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES, in International Class 9.  By contrast, the Cited Registrations identify goods such as semiconductors and semiconductor cores, integrated circuits, software of use in the field of digital signal processing for multi-media and communication applications, video and image processing integrated circuits, speech signal processing integrated circuits, application specific processors, error correction and channel coders, system-on-chip and field programmable gate array (FPGA) based evaluation systems for imaging, video and communications, in International Class 9. 

The Goods identified with Applicant's mark AMPHION are defined as follows.

A circuit breaker is defined as "(1) (general) (A) A device designed to open and close a circuit by nonautomatic means, and to open the circuit automatically on a predetermined overload of current, without injury to itself when properly applied within its rating."  The New IEEE Standard Dictionary of Electrical and Electronics Terms, 5^th Edition (1993) at page 187. 

A power controller is not specifically defined, but "power" and "power control centers" of power operations are defined.  Power is "10. Elec.  B. The product of the effective values of the voltage and current with the cosine of the phase angle between current and voltage in an alternating current circuit."  Webster's II, New Riverside University Dictionary, Copyright^© 1994 Houghton Mifflin Company.  A power control center is "the location where power system operators monitor, analyze, or control power systems."   The New IEEE Standard Dictionary of Electrical and Electronics Terms, 5^th Edition (1993) at page 720. 

The transportation industry involves "facilities consisting of the roads and equipment necessary for the movement of passengers or goods."  The aerospace industry involves "of or designating the earth's atmosphere and the space beyond."  Webster's II, New Riverside University Dictionary, Copyright^© 1994 Houghton Mifflin Company.

As can been seen, Applicant's mark AMPHION is directed towards goods to prevent an overload of electricity in circuits and devices to manage the amount of electricity for use in the aerospace and transportation industries.

In contrast, the goods in the Cited Registrations are defined as follows.

Semiconductors and semiconductor cores defined as "An electronic conductor, with resistivity in the range between metals and insulators, in which the electric-change-carrier concentration increases with increasing temperature over some temperature range.  Note: Certain semiconductors possess two types of carriers, namely, negative electrons and positive holes."  The New IEEE Standard Dictionary of Electrical and Electronics Terms, 5^th Edition (1993) at page 1188.

Integrated circuits are defines as "A combination of interconnected circuit elements inseparably associated on or within a continuous substrate.  Note: To further define the nature an integrated circuit, additional modifiers may be prefixed."  The prefixes that further define the integrated circuit elements are video and image processing and speech signal processing.  Video image processing is a system of operations to produce a visual portion of a televise broadcast.  Speech signal processing is a system of operations to manipulate the physical representation of articulated words.  The New IEEE Standard Dictionary of Electrical and Electronics Terms, 5^th Edition (1993) at page 486.

Software is defined as "(A) computer programs, procedures, rules, and possible associated documentation and data pertaining to the operation of a computer system."  This is a general definition, but is further defined by the listing of the goods in the Cited Registrations, e.g. software "of use in the filed of digital signal processing for multimedia and communication applications" defined as the manipulation of the physical representation of discrete packets of information in a transmission that a combines many different media (text and graphics and sound etc.) between groups of persons.  The New IEEE Standard Dictionary of Electrical and Electronics Terms, 5^th Edition (1993) at page 911.

The Cited Registrations further identify application specific processors, error correction and channel coders, system-on-ship and field programmable gate array (FPGA) based evaluation systems for imaging, video and communications.  (Copies of the definitions are enclosed herewith.) 

Thus, Applicant submits that the listing of goods identified by Applicant's mark AMPHION does not create a likelihood of confusion with the listing of goods identified in the Cited Registrations.  As shown by the above definitions, the listing of goods for Applicant's mark and the Cited Registrations are distinct and therefore does not support a finding of a likelihood of confusion.

The listing of goods identified by Applicant's mark and the Cited Registrations are also not directed toward the same market segment of consumers.  Applicant's goods are marketed to OEMs.  The goods in the Cited Registrations are marketed to digital video System-on-a-Chip designers.  Because the listing of goods identified in Applicant's mark are marketed to different consumers than the goods listed in the Cited Registrations, Applicant submits that a finding of a likelihood of confusion is not supported.

Furthermore, the ordinary consumers within these distinct market segments would not be confused by the use of Applicant's mark and the use in the Cited Registrations because these consumers are sophisticated and they purchase goods after time and thought.  In other words, the purchasers of Applicant's goods identified by Applicant's mark as well as the purchasers of the goods in the Cited Registrations do not buy on impulse.  On the contrary, both the OEMs and the Chip-on-Demand designers decide to purchase goods only after extensive study because for both listing of goods, quality is important and the price of the goods is expensive.  Therefore, Applicant submits that purchases are made only after substantial time and careful consideration.  The conditions under which the sophisticated consumers purchase the goods identified with Applicant's mark AMPHION and the mark of the Cited Registrations supports a lack of a likelihood of confusion.

Finally, the listing of goods for Applicant's mark and the listing of goods in the Cited Registrations are directed at different channels of trade.  Applicant's goods are directed at managing electricity in the transportation and aerospace industries.  In contrast, the Cited Registrations define their industry as semiconductor intellectual-property (IP) solutions for consumer and communications applications in the form of standalone function- and application-specific accelerator cores for digital video applications and for advanced encryption systems, the kilo-channel speech coding solutions for voice-over-IP, and IP core solutions for broadband (802.11a/b/g) platforms.  See www.Amphion.com/tech.html (copies of which are attached).   

For the reasons set forth above, Applicant submits that no likelihood of confusion would arise from Applicant's use and registration of the mark AMPHION for circuit breakers and power controllers in the transportation and aerospace industries in view of Integrated Silicon Systems Limited's registrations for AMPHION for semiconductors, integrated circuits and software in the field of digital signal processing for multi-media and communication applications.

In view of the foregoing remarks, Applicant respectfully requests that the likelihood of confusion rejection under § 2(d) of the Trademark Act be withdrawn.  Additionally, Applicant submits that the application should be allowed to pass to publication and requests early notification to that effect.