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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Loki who wrote (38179)	12/2/1998 1:19:00 PM
From: John Koligman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

From today's WSJ - CPQ at least gave it the old 'college try'... John <ggg> Phi Beta Flappa: Honor Society Says Compaq Dishonored Its Name By EVAN RAMSTAD Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Compaq Computer Corp. thought it had found a pretty smart way to market to college students. But Phi Beta Kappa, the academic honor society, wants to take its key away. The world's biggest maker of personal computers last spring ran a "Phi Beta Compaq" promotion, using direct mail and the Web to reach buyers at colleges and universities. It offered "Phi Beta Compaq" T-shirts and Frisbees to some buyers of its PCs and services. Unamused, the Phi Beta Kappa Society sent a letter asking Compaq to drop the slogan. From the honor society's point of view, the promotion violated its trademarks and besmirched its image with tacky geegaws. "We don't do T-shirts, we don't do coffee mugs, we do keys," said Douglas Foard, the society's executive secretary. Compaq contended that it wasn't infringing. So, for the first time in memory, Phi Beta Kappa sued, seeking Compaq's profits from the promotion and $5 million in damages. The society arrived at that amount partly through a flirtation with credit-card marketing last year. Its governing body, comprised chiefly of college professors and administrators, turned down a chance to market an "affinity" credit card to its 550,000 members, even though the society could have reaped $1.2 million from the card issuer. "If we were to turn down $1.2 million for a card that will be marketed only to our members, isn't it a much greater loss to Phi Beta Kappa to lose the integrity of its trademark?" said Mr. Foard. An invitation to join the 222-year-old society is one of the highest academic honors at 255 colleges and universities. It is given to fewer than 1% of all seniors, based on academic performance. Mr. Foard said the society often turns down requests to endorse products or sell them to its membership. "This is the first time that a company, instead of conceding the point, has decided to fight us," he said. A spokesman for Compaq, which is based in Houston, declined to discuss specifics of the dispute, but said, "We're confident we'll prevail." Compaq, which has ended the campaign, asked for documents relating to the credit card deal that Phi Beta Kappa rejected. A pretrial conference is scheduled next month in a federal court in Alexandria, Va., and attorneys are anticipating a trial in March.