Fanciful names are fun to invent
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Written by admin on September 27, 2008 – 12:07 am
Fanciful Words
Fanciful names are fun to invent because you can use any term, or combination of terms, that do not in fact describe your service or product in any way.
The trick is to think up a term that is interesting, memorable and somehow appropriate, without literally describing some aspect of your service or product. For example, Yahoo.com and ragingbull.com (stock market and investment information site) are both fanciful names that would be easy to protect as trademarks.
Clearly, consumer responses to these types of names are subjective and intuitive. If you create a fanciful or arbitrary mark, try to consider all the possible evocations that the name may have and make the most of them.
Arbitrary Words
Words that are descriptive or ordinary when associated with one product or service can be very strong for another. For example, Apple.com is distinctive and legally strong as a trademark because apples have nothing to do with computers, but Swingsets.com for a site that sells children’s play equipment is weak because it literally describes the product. Similarly, Facets.com is a distinctive name for an online clothing store, but would be mundane, ordinary and non-distinctive as the name for an online gem store.
Common Terms in Uncommon Arrangements
Ordinary words, in unusual arrangements, can make distinctive names. For example, Magicaldesk.com has weak components magical and desk are both common terms, but combine them for secretarial services, and the entire name becomes more distinctive and therefore more easily protected.
When evaluating a phrase to see whether it’s a strong or weak trademark, it is the overall impression that counts. The fact that some of the elements are ordinary won’t matter if the phrase as a whole has an original ring to it. For example, Speedy Turtle Delivery Service is memorable for the contrast of speed and turtle. This makes it distinctive, despite the fact that Speedy Delivery Service without the Turtle would be purely descriptive and so a weak trademark. Especially if you shortened the entire business name to speedyturtle.com, you would have a very distinctive domain name.
