Naming and Branding Agency

Posts from: April 2007

Naming and Branding Pornography Mashups

Call it Porn 2.0, YouPorn and PornoTube are a couple of new pornography sites in the social networking space that are taking a “me too” approach to naming and branding in an effort to become the next YouTube for adult content viral videos.

Colbert on branding (and naming)

Here it is, your moment of “WTF?”

Black Single Love

Here it is, your moment of schadenfreude

"The group that made a dream a reality" (click pic to engorge):

company names

Patents.com Domain Name For Sale By Auction

$350,000 is the high bid at the time of this post. The bid history and the highest bid now can be seen here.

For many years, the domain names patents.com and patents.net have belonged to the law firm of Oppedahl & Larson LLP and were used to provide information to individuals concerning patents and other aspects of intellectual property law. Now, following the dissolution of Oppedahl & Larson LLP, these two domain names are potentially available for purchase. A winning bid is anticipated to be accepted on or before June 15, 2007.

In 2004, the Federal Circuit affirmed the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s (TTAB) refusal to register the mark “patents.com” to the firm. The court found that the proposed mark is “merely descriptive” and thus patents.com is not eligible for trademark protection.

Similarly, the decision reported at Likelihood of Confusion against LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell seeking to trademark lawyers.com recently.

Tagline for Couture Rosé by Stormhoek

They’re having an internal discussion at Stormhoek about what the final tagline on the front label of “Couture Rosé” should be. The main take-out is that they want to communicate in a fun, funky way that this rosé wine tastes BEST with ice, expressed in as few words as possible.

You can check out the shortlist of taglines Couture Rosé on gapingvoid.com, and add your suggestions in the comments there.

There’s over 130 comments already!!!

Life’s Grim Reality

South African brand Stormhoek this week announced the imminent release of a concept wine in the UK named Couture – a Rosé made by Stormhoek winemaker Graham Knox, in a style intended to be consumed with ice.

[more by Hugh MacLeod at gapingvoid.com]

Where is Surf City USA?

Lawyers with Surfboards: It’s All About the Surfing Spirit.

We travel to Santa Cruz and Huntington Beach for a closer look at the two California towns embroiled in a battle over which one is “Surf City USA.” Stacey Delo reports.

According to an earlier report about this lawsuit on the Chilling Effects website, the legal debate may be moot.

Sen. Joe Simitian, a state senator from Santa Cruz has introduced a bodacious resolution in the state senate declaring that Santa Cruz is the true Surf City USA, but that any town can use the name if it wants (a necessary concession considering that cities like Surf City, N.C and Surf City, N.J. have already used the name). Simitian said he hopes the nonbinding resolution will help Santa Cruz’s efforts to thwart Huntington Beach’s trademark applications by putting the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on notice that there are competing claims to Surf City USA.

However, Sen. John Campbell, a Republican who represents Huntington Beach, points out that neither Santa Cruz nor Huntington Beach qualifies to be Surf City, under the terms of the classic Jan and Dean song, as neither place has “two girls for every boy.” “I’ve done some research,” Campbell said. “Neither city has two girls for every boy, so neither should be Surf City.”

The Official Condom of New York City

We completely missed this Valentine’s Day special. On February 14th, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene launched a campaign to distribute free condoms with the city’s own designer label.

“The NYC Condom is a great opportunity to promote health,” said Kenneth Cole, who hosted the launch event at his store in Rockefeller Center. “Any successful product has a strong brand, and condoms are no different.” During the press conference, Cole also unveiled a new line of tee shirts and boxer shorts. Each sports a condom-size pocket and a discreet woven label that reads: Safety Instructions: This garment and its contents should be worn whenever conceivable.

I love New York City condoms. Why didn’t San Francisco come up with this?

The Last Great Hamburger Stand

In 1952, Lovie Yancey created something unique. A culture. A phenomenon, if you will. She created the biggest, juiciest hamburgers anyone had ever seen. So obviously, there was only one name for them – Fatburger.

Igor says, “All the best names are provocations: Virgin, Yahoo, Caterpillar, Fannie Mae, Gap, Banana Republic, Crossfire, Igor. To qualify as a provocation, a name must contain what most people would call “negative messages” for the goods and services the name is to represent.” Igor calls this the theory of negativity.

Fatburger. Well done.