For Group, the Tech Coast Isn’t Clear
Efforts to unite Southern California’s high-tech industry by formally dubbing the area Tech Coast hit a snag when members of Los Angeles New Media Roundtable found that a rival group already held trademarks on the moniker and planned to use it for similar purposes.
New Media Roundtable, a group commissioned by Mayor Richard Riordan to support and promote local technology companies, was scheduled on Tuesday night to choose a nickname that would give Southern California companies a unified identity like that of companies in Northern California’s Silicon Valley.
But the group delayed the vote so lawyers could research the trademark issue, said New Media member Kevin Wall, who is in charge of the naming effort.
At least five Tech Coast-related trademarks already belong to Chip Parker, director of marketing for Deltanet, an Internet service provider based in Anaheim. Ironically, Parker said he has spent the last nine months building an umbrella group that would unite technology-related organizations from Santa Barbara to San Diego.
Parker said he holds trademarks for Tech Coast Inc., Tech Coast Alliance, Tech Coast Expo, Tech Coast Magazine and Tech Coast Television. He has also reserved the World Wide Web address https://www.techcoast.com. He said he does not want any other group to use the names he has reserved, although alternative uses of “Tech Coast” could be beneficial to his efforts.
Lee Harrington, president of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., said the name of a geographic region--such as Tech Coast or Silicon Valley--can be protected by a trademark only for specific purposes, but not for general use.
New Media Roundtable is seeking to use the name in a broad marketing campaign and therefore only needs trademark clearance to use the nickname in promotional materials.
Tim Cooley, the Orange County Business Council executive who is widely credited with coining the name Tech Coast, also holds trademarks for Tech Coast that apply specifically to publications and trade shows.
Unlike Parker, Cooley said he got a trademark “so that someone else wouldn’t grab it and start using it and charging royalties. It allows us to allow people to start using it and start adopting it.” He said he would not object to New Media using the name.
But Wall said New Media is now considering “a very close variation” of Tech Coast that would allow the group to secure all of the trademarks it wants, except for those already reserved by Parker.
“We’re not sure we can work out the Tech Coast problem, but we think we’ve come up with something else that is along the same lines that would be a better way to go,” said Wall, chief executive of BoxTop Interactive, a Los Angeles-based software firm.
Some members of New Media favor adopting a name other than Tech Coast that highlights the multimedia industry, said Rohit Shukla, a New Media member and executive director of the Los Angeles Regional Technology Alliance.
At least a few other groups have adopted names that include the words “Tech Coast” without running afoul of any trademarks, Cooley said. For example, an Orange County venture capital group goes by the name Tech Coast Angels, and another Orange County organization designed to assist new businesses is called Tech Coast Advisory Group.
Wall said members will take a final vote after the group’s lawyers finish their trademark research. Then New Media can begin marketing efforts designed to attract skilled labor, financing and entrepreneurs that local technology companies are seeking.
Those efforts would complement Parker’s intention for the Tech Coast Alliance. He said he hopes to encourage Southern California technology companies to collaborate with one another in ways that would strengthen the region’s economy.
His long-term plan also includes a magazine, television show and series of meetings and conventions to foster a sense of community among high-tech firms throughout the Southland.
