Silicon Forest

Oregon has a “Silicon Forest” of high-tech companies located near Portland, between Beaverton and Hillsboro. Lattice Semiconductor Corporation trademarked “Silicon Forest” with a first use of April 4, 1983. “Silicon Forest” borrows from Silicon Valley (California)—a term used since the early 1970s. “After years of germination, the first crop of high-tech seedlings in Oregon’s ‘Silicon Forest’ are beginning to sprout impressive numbers” was cited in The Oregonian (Portland, OR) on August 28. 1983. However, The Oregonian found that a 1981 Japanese press release had described a trade mission of visiting Portland’s “silicon forest.”
 
Other “Silicon” areas include Silicon Alley (New York City), Silicon Hills (Austin, TX) and Silicon Prairie (Dallas-Fort Worth, TX)
     
 
Wikipedia: Silicon Forest
Silicon Forest is a nickname for the cluster of high-tech companies located in the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon, and most frequently refers to the industrial corridor between Beaverton and Hillsboro in northwest Oregon.
 
The name is analogous to Silicon Valley. In the greater Portland area, these companies have traditionally specialized in hardware — specifically test-and-measurement equipment (Tektronix), computer chips (Intel and an array of smaller chip manufacturers), electronic displays (InFocus, Planar and Pixelworks) and printers (Hewlett-Packard Co., Xerox and Epson). There is a small clean technology emphasis in the area.
 
History
Silicon Forest can refer to all the technology companies in Oregon, but initially referred to Washington County on Portland’s west side. First used in a Japanese company’s press release dating to 1981, Lattice Semiconductor trademarked the term in 1984 but does not use the term in its marketing materials. Lattice’s founder is sometimes mentioned as the person who came up with the term.
     
28 August 1983, The Sunday Oregonian (Portland, OR), “Lattice Semiconductor considered hottest high-tech prospect” by Charles Humble, Real Estate/Business, pg. E1, col. 1
After years of germination, the first crop of high-tech seedlings in Oregon’s “Silicon Forest” are beginning to sprout impressive numbers, but few show the kind of luster that surrounds the state’s first semiconductor startup.
 
Formed only nine months ago, Lattice Semiconductor Corp. has received little public attention so far. However, in Portland’s plugged-in investment community, it is considered the company with the hottest prospect of becoming Oregon’s next major high-tech winner.
 
26 February 1984, The Sunday Oregonian (Portland, OR),  pg. D30, col. 3 classified ad: 
Silicon Forest
Opportunities
(Lattice—ed.)
 
11 October 1984, The Daily News (Huntingdon, PA), “In Washington” by Robert Walters, pg. 7, col. 2:
More than half of AuCoin’s constituents live in Washington County, which lies just west of Portland and has been dubbed “Silicon Forest” because it has become a mecca for high-tech companies.
 
Google Books
Behind the Silicon Curtain:
The Seductions of Work in a Lonely Era
By Dennis Hayes
Boston, MA: South End Press
1989
Pg. 162:
Among the list of many: Silicon Glen (Scotland), Silicon Forest (Portland/Beaverton, Oregon) Silicon Gulch (Phoenix, Arizona), Bionic Valley (Salt Lake City), Silicon Valley East (Troy-Albany-Schenectady, New York), Silicon Prairie (north Dallas/Austin). Silicon Mountain (Colorado Springs), not to mention Route 128 (Boston) and Research Triangle (North Carolina).
   
The Oregonian (Portland, OR)
Inside the Silicon Forest
Published: Friday, April 07, 2006, 7:27 PM   Updated: Tuesday, July 10, 2007, 2:48 PM
Mike Rogoway, The Oregonian By Mike Rogoway, The Oregonian  
(...)
Lattice still holds the trademark, and renewed it last year. But Lattice doesn’t use it on any products or enforce a claim to the phrase, Chief Financial Officer Jan Johannessen said Friday.
 
The Silicon Forest actually predates Lattice by at least two years. My colleague Mike Francis traced the first written use of the term to a 1981 Japanese press release that described a trade mission visiting Portland’s silicon forest.
 
Manvil
Oregon’s ‘Silicon Forest’ has a moniker, but no logo, ’til now
By MANVIL on February 12, 2013 in Logo/branding Designs
Silicone-Forest-fin2Lattice Semiconductor coined the phrase “Silicon Forest”. The moniker describes the bastion of tech companies that lies between Beaverton and Hillsboro on the western edges of Portland.
 
Silicon Forest is a catchy phrase for one of the most semiconductor-production-rich areas in the nation, and for that reason, Lattice chose to trademark it. We think that’s kind of a bummer, but Lattice is pretty fair with their usage. They don’t pack it into their marketing material, and we at MANVIL think they’d have little use to do so. A nice addition is that Lattice hasn’t yet gotten all litigious about the phrase’s use, because the press bandies it about like candy. It’s Oregon’s minor key swing at Silicon Valley, and Washington’s “Redmond”.
 
Every good turn of phrase can have a graphic.
 
The Oregonian (Portland, OR)
Get small: Oregon tech companies recalibrate after years of struggle
By Mike Rogoway
on July 06, 2013 at 4:00 PM, updated July 06, 2013 at 4:01 PM
The high-tech industry in the Portland area dates back to at least the 1940s, with Tektronix and Electro Scientific Industries as pioneers.
 
Lattice Semiconductor long considered itself a titan of Oregon technology.
 
The late Sen. Mark Hatfield once sat on its board of directors, and the company decorated its imposing Hillsboro headquarters with fine art. Lattice even trademarked the phrase “Silicon Forest.”
 
After years of downsizing, though, Lattice has come to accept a painful reality: It can’t play with the big boys.
 
(Trademark)
Word Mark SILICON FOREST
Goods and Services IC 009. US 021 026. G & S: MEMORY STORAGE UNITS, NAMELY [ PROMS, ROMS, EPROMS, E2PROMS, ] MOS, FET AND INTEGRATED CIRCUITS. FIRST USE: 19830404. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19830928
Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING
Serial Number 73468733
Filing Date March 5, 1984
Current Basis 1A
Original Filing Basis 1A
Published for Opposition May 28, 1985
Registration Number 1352522
Registration Date August 6, 1985
Owner (REGISTRANT) LATTICE SEMICONDUCTOR CORPORATION CORPORATION OREGON 10300 SW GREENBURG ROAD PORTLAND OREGON 97223
(LAST LISTED OWNER) LATTICE SEMICONDUCTOR CORPORATION CORPORATION BY MERGER WITH DELAWARE 5555 N.E. MOORE COURT HILLSBORO OREGON 97124
Assignment Recorded ASSIGNMENT RECORDED
Attorney of Record ALEXANDER C. JOHNSON, JR.
Disclaimer NO CLAIM IS MADE TO THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO USE “SILICON” APART FROM THE MARK AS SHOWN
Type of Mark TRADEMARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Affidavit Text SECT 15. SECT 8 (6-YR). SECTION 8(10-YR) 20050901.
Renewal 1ST RENEWAL 20050901
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