— Jessica Gutierrez Alm, Attorney
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA)’s decision last year to end its boys-only policy was met with mixed reactions. Some lauded it as a progressive victory. Others, including former Girl Scouts, viewed it as a thinly-veiled corporate strategy and a loss for girls. As part of an early adopter
–James Mahoney, Razor’s Edge Communications
It was festival time in Italy when I passed this food truck at an Abruzzo village’s celebration. I understand a little Italian (and speak even less), so what initially caught my eye was the crowd and the fun-loving couple serving up the goodies.
I knew that “Amici delle” on the
–James Mahoney, Razor’s Edge Communications
Every now and then, I find pearls floating in the tide of print advertising. These two, for example.
First is the Kiton ad, one of a series the company is running. I liked the whole look and feel of it right away, but didn’t know anything about the company.
I
– Mark Prus, Principal, NameFlash
Last year I wrote a “Change Your Name Already” blog post about Overstock.com on DuetsBlog which described the painful way that Overstock.com was trying to communicate that their name did not fit what they were doing as a business…”we are so much more!” My response was to politely
— Aaron Keller, co-author, The Physics of Brand, co-founder Capsule.us and Columnist at Twin Cities Business magazine.
There are so many hidden dangers in the process of naming any new offering — many of which can sneak up on you. We all like to believe we’ll see the danger before it meets us squarely in
— Jessica Gutierrez Alm, Attorney
Amazon’s patent (U.S. Patent No. 9,280,157) for a “System and Method for Transporting Personnel Within an Active Workspace” has been in the news recently.
The invention is described as a device for keeping human workers safe in an automated (i.e., robotic) work environment. In the Background, the patent discusses the
— Jessica Gutierrez Alm, Attorney
Trademark enforcement, particularly in an age of social media and internet shaming, is tricky business. Some brands (I’m looking at you, Louis Vuitton) seem to have enough market share to ignore the social backlash from their heavy-handed demand letters. But companies that lack that kind of brand power
– Mark Prus, Principal, NameFlash
A portmanteau is a linguistic blend of words in which parts of multiple words are combined into a new word. Common language examples include smog, which is a combination of the words smoke and fog, and motel which combines motor and hotel.
Some big companies used the portmanteau technique to
– Mark Prus, Principal, NameFlash
Summer is in full swing and that means baseball is top of mind for many of us. As a professional name developer, I continue to get a charge from the names of minor league baseball teams. Following up on my previous post on minor league baseball team names here are
— Jessica Gutierrez Alm, Attorney
Earlier this month, the United States Postal Service (USPS) was ordered to pay $3.5 million in damages to a sculptor for copyright infringement.
Seeking a unique redesign for its “Forever” stamps, the USPS searched stock photos for images of the Statue of Liberty. They found a particularly striking photo