RE: Trademarks, random strings, sharing, reserved words

[Michael Dillon <michael@memra.com>]

On Wed, 25 Dec 1996, Robert Frank wrote:

> XX in them.  The one that won was EXXON.  So here we have an
> instance where a random letter combination became a name.

Sure, sure. It was completely random that Standard Oil, a.k.a. SO, a.k.a.
Esso, changed their name to Exxon.

> 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.

This is sort of how I created the word Memra that I use for my company. 
Nine years after I created this word and incorporated the company I
discovered that "memra" is actually a word in an ancient language that
bears some rather eerie connections to the roots and processes that I
went through to create the name. I was less concerned with a semantic
connection between the name and the business and more concerned with
having a name that sounded good.

The process that I went through to create this name, and others that I
have created, is not random. In fact, a truly random computerised
procedure risks producing names that conflict with trademarks. In order
for this to be minimized the program that generated the names would have
to use non-random techniques such as placing 2 non-consecutive digits
within the string at neither the first nor the last position and ensuring
that all vowels and all consonants are clustered together except for
numeric digits within. Such an algorithm could not generate kodak7 but
would produce names like a7ejn8l or pkj2h9ue.

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