in reply to (OT) Best Name for Milkbone

Don't think this is the right place to do this. But anyway, all of the names listed are either descriptive or have a high chance of being trademarked already.

You don't want it to be descriptive, because then you can't trademark it (well, you probably could, but it wouldn't stand up in court). And you definitely don't want to choose something that's already trademarked.

What you need is a word that doesn't mean anything right now.

I already suggested kinsbat on CB before. It's based on your name and it doesn't (well, at least didn't a few days ago) have any hits on Google. Which is a good indication. Maybe it should be kynsbat to make it more special.

In any case, think of something new. My brainstorm just came up with (some may be tongue in cheek, but hey, Parrot also started as a joke).

And then you take these words and try them out on Google. And you find that all have hits except peorux. So you keep that one on your list. And repeat until you find something that you like and you verified it's not getting you into trouble.

Liz

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Re: Re: Best Name for Milkbone
by jand (Friar) on Aug 25, 2003 at 01:58 UTC
    You don't want it to be descriptive, because then you can't trademark it

    Note that you are very unlikely to get the trademark for the name of a free program anyways. Just claiming that the term is a trademark of yours has no legal meaning if you cannot prove that you actually trade using that name. Giving stuff away for free is not trade; you must have received something in return, even if it is just $1 or some other kind of consideration.

    And your trademark will only be protected in the geographical location where your trade is taking place. If you "sell" a license to your buddy in the same city, you will not have a valid claim to the trademark outside the city.

    One way around this is to register an "intend to use" trademark. But this will cost money and must be renewed every year.

    Unlike patents, there is no "prior art" in trademark protection. Just because you use a term for your free software does not prevent someone else from using the term for an unrelated product and them starting trading using this term. They will then have a valid claim on this term as their trademark and can ask you from using it if there is cause for confusion of their customers. The fact that you used the term first is irrelevant if you didn't "trade" under it and didn't register it.

    Given all this, I wonder if using a descriptive term isn't a better idea: it makes it less likely that someone else will claim it as their trademark later and force you to change your name again.

    As expected, the above does not constitute legal advice, yada, yada, get a lawyer to get a qualified legal opinion.

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Re: Re: Best Name for Milkbone
by chaoticset (Chaplain) on Sep 03, 2003 at 02:28 UTC


    If you're looking for user-deprecating names, chattel comes to mind.

    As for Mercury, that's in use in plenty of places, plus it's kind of overworked. (Plus, Mercury was plenty of things besides being a messenger for the gods, including being the patron of thieves and liars and whatnot.)

    Actually, that makes it more appropriate for a chat program, doesn't it? Hm. What's the Roman name for Mercury? Hermes, I think?

    And if you're not concerned about the truly tacky connotations...why not BatChat? Da-na-da-na-da-na-da-na-da-na-da-na-da-na-BatChat!

    -----------------------
    You are what you think.

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