Digi-Key Trademarks ‘Prototype to Production’

THIEF RIVER FALLS, Minn. — June 17, 2013 — Digi-Key Corporation, a leading company in electronic component selection, availability and delivery, today announced that it has received registered trademarks for the phrases, “Prototype to Production” and “From Prototype to Production.”This company calls this a milestone marking the company’s innovation and leadership in developing and fine tuning a unique distribution model in the electronic component industry.

“Over the past decade, we’ve been honing our “hybrid” global distribution model, earning the respect of our suppliers and customers,” said Tony Harris, CMO for Digi-Key. “Shaped largely by global business dynamics and online consumer behavior, this new model delivers a new level of efficiency and economy of scale for both the design engineer and the purchaser. The uniqueness of our approach has now been deemed worthy of dedicated nomenclature and trademark registration”

“Industry dynamics have created both opportunities and challenges for distributors,” said Brett Fox, Touchstone Semiconductor CEO. “In response to changing customer demands, Digi-Key’s next generation model supports the entire lifecycle of a product.They’ve figured out how to leverage technology, processes, and people to expand the company’s excellence in delivering single part orders to high-mix, low-volume production orders.”

“Digi-Key’s leading-edge business model is unique in its ability and strength to support product from the design phase, through new product introduction runs and high-mix/low volume production ,” said Digi-Key president, Mark Larson. “Our unequaled integration of “ prototype to production” capabilities allows the engineer to engage long-term with a go-to partner and confidently maintain this engagement through production. Digi-Key has proven the possibility of having a relationship that spans from design to production while avoiding the complexities, inefficiencies, and risks of managing multiple partners.”

As they seek to accelerate time to market and reduce costs, many global manufacturing customers are turning to Digi-Key, the only distributor able to support the entire process – from prototype to production.