22-Apr-1997 Tuesday
Here's a quick lesson in computing:
You can use Netcom, along with Netscape and Net.Jet, to call up NetGuide on the Net.
But whatever you do, don't call it the Internet because that name is already taken, and it has nothing to do with the information superhighway.
Got it? Good, because even if you are a computer whiz, all these "net" names can sound like gobbledygook.
With the proliferation of computer-related companies and products, names that
include words like "net," "power," "link," "cyber" and "web" are being
snapped up so fast that some people wonder what's left.
"There are serious trademark problems in finding a name, either for a company
or a product, that is going to be legally available for use," said
SB Master, president of Master-McNeil Inc.,
a Berkeley company that specializes in naming products for companies.
"A group of people who are starting a company ... could easily find that all the names they thought of are not available."
Her company christened Compaq Computer's fleet of portable computers Armada,
Apple's Macintosh Performa, and Microsoft's new imaging software
"Picture It!"
But one word is off-limits: "Internet."
"We don't even suggest it," Master said. "We avoid it."
That's because Internet is a federally registered trademark of a Reston, Va., company that has nothing to do with the Internet as we know it.
Internet Inc. runs a network of automated teller machines. The company took
its name in 1984, before the computer network that goes by the same name
became a household word.
However, a society made up of founders of the Internet ... er ... the global
communications network, is challenging Internet Inc.'s right to the
trademark.
The dispute awaits a hearing before U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's trial and appeal board. No date has been set yet.
In the meantime, requests by companies wanting to use the word Internet to describe their products have been delayed until the case is resolved.
"We have hundreds (of petitions) in our office that are affected," said Lisa-Joy Zgorski, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
"The contention is that Internet has become too widely used, and therefore is no longer associated with a particular product," Zgorski said.
The Internet Society and the Corporation for National Research Initiatives think anyone should be free to use the word.
"It is in the public interest," said Patrice Lyons, the Internet Society's attorney.
Internet Inc., which merged with another company to become Honor Technologies
Inc., wants to retain its exclusive right to use and license
the name, said its attorney, Edward Kondracki.
"The company does not object to the use of the term Internet in its ordinary
significance," Kondracki said. "It is descriptive of a global
network of computers, and no one denies that. The company objects to people
trading on their name, which would cause confusion in the marketplace."
Master, the brand-naming specialist, said the word Internet is "intrinsically not ownable."
"It's a generic, standard term that has become part of the language that we
all need to speak to go about our everyday lives, like the words table,
pencil or car," she said.
A trademark is a name, symbol or phrase that identifies a product.
Those who register with the Patent and Trademark Office, as Internet Inc.
did, use the symbol of an R within a circle. Companies that don't register
a name can assert their common-law right to it by putting a TM symbol at the
end of the mark, said the U.S. trademark office's Zgorski.
It's not unprecedented for the federal government to cancel a trademark when it becomes generic.
Bayer Corp., for instance, lost its trademark for "aspirin."
"The use of the word aspirin became so commonplace and became so identifiable
with pain relief that Bayer eventually just lost its coverage
because everyone else in the industry was using it," Zgorski said.
In the computer industry, applications for trademarks are skyrocketing.
The federal trademark office last year processed a record 200,000 applications
in all industries. "Among those industries producing more
requests is the electronics industry, which would include all the computer-related
and Internet-related names, phrases, words or identifiers," said Zgorski.
Master-McNeil tracks usage of some of the most popular cyber words.
Not the usual
Just six companies wanted to use the word "web" to describe their products
in 1985, according to Master-McNeil's survey
of federal trademark
applications. That figure jumped to 697 last year.
Demand for the word "net" has soared, from 430 applications in 1985 to 5,107 last year.
"There's so many (computer-related) companies and products that one of the
major challenges is to stand out amid the clutter," said Master, whose
company charges from $30,000 to the six figures to create an identity.
Just as new parents face the dilemma of whether to give their baby a common
name, such as Jennifer, or a more unusual name, like Yessenia, so do
companies.
Companies use common computer-related words, such as "net," in names, to immediately
convey to the consumer what their product is all about. With
that comes the added cost of distinguishing their product from everyone else's.
"Is it so important to the company that they are willing to fight the battle
of standing out from all the other nets or cybers or webs?" Master
asks. "What you get is immediate meaning. But along with that is the responsibility
and the cost of saying, We're not Netcom or Netware or
Netsoft or Netpower, we're Netelite."
But standing out in the crowd with an unusual name also requires savvy marketing.
"You have to invest in making the name mean something," Master said.
The word "Eudora" once meant nothing to computer enthusiasts, until software
inventor Steve Dorner named the e-mail program after writer Eudora
Welty.
"He is a big fan of Eudora Welty," said Michele Bernhard, spokeswoman for
San Diego's Qualcomm Inc., which owns the development rights and trademark
for Eudora. Bernhard said Welty's short story called "Why I live at the P.O.
(Post Office)" inspired Dorner.
Now the moniker is part of everyday life for 18 million people worldwide who use the program.
Finding a name that hasn't already been trademarked is hard enough. On top
of that, most companies want the name to be available as a domain on the
World Wide Web.
The problem, according to Master, is that a company is competing only against
others in the same industry for a trademark name. But it's
competing against all industries for a domain name.
As a result, Master said, Ford can have its Explorer, and Microsoft can have an Internet Explorer.
"But they both can't have the domain name," she said. "This has led to just endless problems."
A move that is under way to expand the domain naming system may help ease the gridlock.
Meanwhile, as the more obvious product names become spoken for, few other
environments are as open to creative, even goofy, monikers as the computer
industry is. Where else could you get away with calling your product "Yahoo"?
Master describes the Internet as "a free, anarchic environment" where almost anyone can start up a company by peddling a product over the Web.
"And that means a lot of names are required," she said. "Are we running out
of names? I don't think we are. I think it's just a function of . . .
needing to dig deeper into vocabulary areas, of being more creative and more
willing to look at new metaphors and new imagery."
Copyright Union-Tribune Publishing
Co.
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