I have for ever met entrepreneurs and industrialists who are utmost
objective, professional and smart when it comes to business plans and
models. However when it comes to naming the venture the
same person adopts an extremely subjective stance. “My wife likes the
name; it’s our family name, my daughter’s and son’s name coined
together…”

Well, let’s admit a successful business need not always have a great
name. But then it would be equally difficult to admit that there is
nothing to a business name … To start with a good name can make your
work of registering, branding, marketing and advertising easier.
Names can help you differentiate from competitors, be memorable and
even make an emotional connection with your audience. Mr. Kochouseph at V-Guard would vouch for the value of a name. Further have you ever
heard someone copying the name of a business that’s gone bust?

This article is aimed at shedding some objective light on the
importance of apt naming from a trademark perspective.

Business names can be broadly classified under

Emotional – family or a person names. For every Tata, Birla, Muthoot,
Alukkas, Emotional names names there are a thousand obscure, unknown names.
Geographical names can also feature here such as Malabar Gold,
Tajmahal Tea, Kumarakom Lake Resort

Practical (The Functional, industry relevant and descriptive names). Best
Bakery, Infosys, Rubco, Popular Automobiles are few of prime
examples.

The Short forms- Names such as IBM, 3M, MRF, KRS and BPL would fall under this catogary

The Short Cut- Clones of bigger names and buzzwords such as Comsoft, Microserve.

The Promise or names that suggest the experience of the brand such
as Safari, Gypsy King, Director’s Special, Reliance, Action Shoes.

Invented / Created or borrowed from another language Google,
Milma, Kalapani, Scooty, Tanishq, and more recently xylys.

Smart Names most cited example will be the Monster Jobsite. Names with a twist in the spelling or the meaning also come under this category. GosSip (café’), Focuz Corporation.

ED (the evocative and distinctive) Kingfisher, Apple, Splendor,
Amazon, Hush Puppies, Mindtree, Enfield Bullet.

My experience indicates that Emotional names are tricky when
it comes to legal disputes. It is recommended to avoid using a
surname. You will
find it hard to stop other people with the same name from competing
with you. Consequently, you will also find it hard to register the
brand in most countries. Ever wondered why Mr. Joy Alukkas reinvented
his retail business as JOYALUKKAS?

Avoid geographical names. These cause a number of problems.
Firstly, you cannot stop other people from using the name as a
correct descriptive term. Secondly, if you get outside a particular
geographical area, the name may no longer be appropriate. Thirdly, if
you elect to source the product from a different source, you may be
in breach of Fair Trading Laws in many countries.

Avoid names that suggest a relationship with the Indian state. It is
expressly barred by the Emblems and Names (Prevention of improper
use) Act. Names starting with Indian, Bharath, National are sure to
attract the provisions of the both the trademark and the Emblems and
Names (Prevention of improper use) Act.

If the name is purely industry relevant or descriptive of a feature
there are gains and losses to be had. Marketing people will often
tell you that descriptive name is much easier to sell and will gain
immediate recognition with relevant consumers.

In the short term, they are right, but in the medium or long term
(probably anything from 6 months upwards) this advice is very badly
wrong.

A name which describes the product or service, or something desirable
which might be achieved as a result of the product or service (for
example FAST for a postal delivery system) is one which can easily be
adopted by imitators coming onto the market. Good features of the
product, for example the words best, prime and superior can easily be
used by others to describe their goods or services, and therefore are
not good brands.

The main risk that you run is that your business will be successful,
and then an imitator, who might well be a former staff member, comes
onto the market with a similar name. If your original name was
descriptive of some feature of the product or service, you will not
be able to stop that similar name from getting onto the market, and
taking a share of the market niche which you have established. So you
have Best bakery, Best Bakers, New Best Bakery in every street corner
of the state…

Therefore, if your business is to be successful in the long term,
the name which you choose for it is very important. It is not
coincidence that two most successful children’s brands in the state are POPPY and Schoobee. While clearly there is an element of luck, and perhaps an element of good management, the selection of a name which does not directly describe
any characteristic of a product or service is a critical factor in
the long term success of the operation. The expensive but smooth
transition of the former Casino Group of Hotels to CGH EARTH was possibly due to this insight.

The Short forms or Acronyms and short three letter brands are not particularly strong.
Although some are well known, such as IBM, and BMW, these have been
forced on their owners because the original words used to make up the
trademark are descriptive. They are always quite easy to imitate, for
example, it would probably be possible to launch a transport company
under the trademark KRT, without infringing KERALA ROADWAY’S
intellectual Property rights.

The Short Cuts suggest a follower attitude and even lack of imagination.
Try to avoid combinations of trendy or computer type buzzwords. There
are simply too many businesses around with names like comsoft,
microserve etc. These names are very easy to forget, as there are so
many of them. They simply lack the distinctiveness necessary to
become strong brands, unless they are hugely successful for other
reasons, for example Microsoft.

The Promise names offer a direct connection to something real, to a
part of human experience. They rise above descriptive names because
their message is more about the experience than the task and would
definitely take the name closer to an emotional connect. However the
downside is that you can have a Grand hotel, Grand Supermarket and a
Grand Bakery. To add to that from a trademark perspective, the
acquisition of ownership of these names and marks require genuine
long term usage and product association.

That leads us to safer havens of Eureka, Discordia and ED. Eureka
offers a broad spectrum of names that are easy to trademark since
they are words coined by the company itself or borrowed from foreign
cultures. If you just sit down with a scrabble set or pencil and
paper, and combine elements of your own name, you will soon come up
with a number of invented words.

The hard part is making the mental leap into adopting them as brands.
Any suitable words could sound terrible, be confusing to pronounce or
spell, and may lose “freshness” in the long run.

With Adoptive names or Eureka names it is always suggested that you carry out some
research
amongst people who speak a range of foreign languages. There is
little point in making the same mistake as Hindustan Motors with
their sub brand “Nova”. In Spanish roughly means “does not work”.
Likewise Volkswagen with it “Jetta” model, which means bad luck in
Italy.

Discordia names are easily retained as they disrupt the patterns of
association and cognition. They breeze through the trade mark and
registration process so that you can truly own the identity. However
do keep in mind that the consumer should not find the name too
shocking to like it.

Evocative and Distinctive names are considered the names that are
most retained in the consumers mind and have distinct emotions
attached to them. A recent example would be Moto Pebl. Kingfisher is
one such name with enough room to speak about beers and jets.

.

The actual selection of a suitable name is the hard task. As
discussed, the very best names are totally invented words, words with
a twist or even words that evoke a positive emotional connect. The
best trademarks are usually between 4
and 8 letters long, and need not have a discernable meaning in any
language and may not have any relationship to any characteristic of
the product or service.

Creating or identifying a unique name is not enough; you will have to
confirm that the name doesn’t infringe on someone else’s existing
trademark. Herein take note that in the Indian trademark system
goods/services fall under the preview of 42 classes. It is essential
to identify the relevant classification of goods and services and do
a trademark search covering the Indian Trademark database as well as
a company name search with the Registrar of Companies.

Only after you obtain a genuine no conflict report for
trademark/company name search should you proceed with the actual
naming (we at TM4I are used to having people come to us for a
trademark search after having printed their stationary, got their
licenses/ approvals only to realize later that some else owns the
trademark) ).

As a signing off note, it is important that you own your
name and identity like any other asset. After that it is essential to be consistent and constant in usage of the mark.

Arun Abraham is the founder and Principal Consultant of http://www.TRADEMARKS4INDIA.COM He is a law graduate from M.G University and is a Master’s Degree holder in Business from TVU, London. He is a partner in MARCMEDIUS, a firm of attorneys and consultants and is the former managing editor of the Kerala Mid-day Times Daily newspaper.

Tags: article, naming, trademarks

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