RE: Trademarks, random strings, sharing, reserved words

[Robert Frank <bobf@corsearch.com>]

OK, let's try another.  As I have heard the story, when Standard Oil
was being broken up they needed to come up with a new name for
one of the divisions (Maybe it was Standard Oil of NJ or Standard Oil
of Ohio, but that doesn't matter.)  Anyhow, as I have heard, they
realized the XX was not a part of any name or word in any language.
So they had a computer generate thousands of names with a 
XX in them.  The one that won was EXXON.  So here we have an
instance where a random letter combination became a name.

Also, I know a lady who runs a name generation business. The way she
works is that she has computerized dictionaries of 5-7 different languages.
If she is working on a name for a feminine hygiene product she goes to each
dictionary and looks up the foreign equivalents for words like "feminine"
or "hygiene" and generates names using the foreign words as a root.  Again,
rather made-up terms become names.

----------
From: 	Michael Dillon[SMTP:michael@memra.com]
Sent: 	Tuesday, December 24, 1996 7:07 PM
To: 	'iahc-discuss@iahc.org'
Subject: 	RE: Trademarks, random strings, sharing, reserved words

On Tue, 24 Dec 1996, Robert Frank wrote:

> The posting below claims that there is some "history" to the concept of
> names that should be considered.  What kind of printer do you use? A
> HPLJ2 or a BJ-20? What kind of car do you drive? A 320i or a TR-7 or a
> MGB-GT? 
> 
> Are these not names?

Of course they are. But they are definitely not random strings. They are
just words in a language that only some people speak, namely computer
specialists and car enthusiasts.

Michael Dillon                   -               Internet & ISP Consulting
Memra Software Inc.              -                  Fax: +1-604-546-3049
http://www.memra.com             -               E-mail: michael@memra.com