Dish Network has quietly waged a battle with Nvidia Corp. since April in an effort to stop the chipmaker from using the name "Hopper" for its next-generation graphic processing unit (GPU).
Dish has since 2012 branded its digital video recorders and other satellite receiver equipment under the Hopper name. It's unclear why the Englewood, Co. telecom, which is transitioning into wireless connectivity as its legacy satellite TV business slowly fades away, is concerned about brand confusion when it comes to tech hardware used in things like gaming computers.
Dish, however, filed a notice of opposition to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) last spring. Proceedings tied to that filing have been stopped on numerous occasions since, giving both sides 60 days to conduct settlement talks each time.
The most recent stoppage occurred on Dec. 21 -- if Dish and Nvidia can't reach an agreement by Feb. 22, proceedings including pre-trial discovery, will reconvene.
Nvidia filed with the USPTO in 2019 to use the name Hopper to describe the architecture its new GPUs. Products tied to this Hopper design are expected to hit the market this year.
As our sibling pub Tom's Hardware notes, the Nvidia brand name stems from the late Carol Hopper, who developed the programming language COBOL and invented the first compiler, among other achievements.
As Tom's Hardware also mentioned, Nvidia is developing other consumer-targeted GPUs under the codenames "Ada" and "Lovelace."
The estates of late mathematician Ada Lovelace and pornography actress Linda Lovelace have yet to initiate any trademark opposition with the USPTO.
