In 25 years of naming, what's changed?
We do a lot of naming of some sort or another at Olix. And this weekend I realised that it was 25 years’ ago almost to the day that I started out in the branding game , as a fresh-faced graduate in the naming department at Interbrand. So what has changed since June 1995?
Two factors have become more pressing.
Firstly, the trademark issues are harder than ever. As of today, there are 41,740,444 registered trademarks on the WIPO database. And keep in mind that ‘near identical’ is still a potential conflict. If you decide launch your consumer electronics brand as Samsing, expect a cease-and-desist to follow soon thereafter.
Secondly, URLs weren’t a thing in 1995 when I was a kid with hair. According to data from Verisign, there were 359.8 million registered domain names at the close of 2019’s third quarter.
When everyone wants a name that is available to register / own as a trademark AND register as a .com, we’re in needle-hiding haystack territory.
One thing is just as it was: the complexity of stakeholders. Invariably it is more than one person’s baby that is being named, which injects an unpredictable level of subjectivity and difference of taste into the process. That requires careful managing and a robust process.
But it’s not all blood and tears. One thing that has become easier is linguistic checks and customer research. You can get feedback almost instantly these days, whereas in the 90s we were faxing lists around and convening focus groups.
So what does this all mean for naming projects today?
It’s a numbers game. If you’re doing this yourself, look to generate hundreds of ideas, and don’t be disheartened when the trademark registry carpetbombs the majority of them, and then the URL sniper finishes off the bulk of those left standing.
Think creatively. Unlike in most other fields, the legal pre-conditions actually encourage lateral thought and creativity. If the name seems obvious, it probably is unavailable. Weirder is better (at least from a trademark and URL point of view).
Get expert legal help. Trademark law is a specialist legal field. I’m not a trademark lawyer, and most likely nor are you, so we should always talk to an expert. I’ve had two clients recently fumble the trademark side of things through legal generalists who underestimated the complexity. Note, you might not actually need or want a registrable trademark. Even if you don’t you should probably make sure you’re not infringing a third party’s pre-existing rights. Let an expert guide you on this.
Allow time. On top of the trademark filing process - which itself takes some time - you’ll almost certainly need to get into contact with third parties to negotiate or reach some sort of mutual agreement. If you need to launch in 2 weeks time, you’ve failed to plan.
The costs of getting this wrong are not to be underestimated. The horror stories abound, and when Apple, the world’s most valuable brand, gets it wrong to the tune of $60m, you can be sure this is not trivial stuff we’re talking about.
Alternatively, you could get in touch with us and let us help you through it all.