Case study.

The rules of racehorse naming drafted by lawyers for The Jockey Club:

“6. NAMING

A. A name may be claimed on the Registration Application, on a Name Claiming Form or through Interactive RegistrationTM at registry.jockeyclub.com. Name selections should be listed in order of preference. Names will be assigned based upon availability and compliance with the naming rules as stated herein. Names may not be claimed or reserved by telephone. When a foreign language name is submitted, an English translation must be furnished to The Jockey Club. An explanation must accompany “coined” or “made-up” names that have no apparent meaning. Horses that were born in the United States, Puerto Rico or Canada and currently reside in another country must be named by The Jockey Club through the Stud Book Authority of their country of residence.

B. If a valid attempt to name a foal is submitted to The Jockey Club by February 1 of the foal’s two-year-old year and such a name is determined not eligible for use, no fee is required for a subsequent claim of name for that foal. If a valid attempt to name a foal is not submitted to The Jockey Club by February 1 of the foal’s two-year-old year, a fee is required to claim a name for such a foal (see Fee Schedule).

C. A reserved name must be used within one year from the day it was reserved. Reserved names cannot be used until notification requesting the assignment of the name to a specific horse is received by the Registry Office. If the reserved name is not used within one year from its reservation, it will become available for any horse. A fee is required to reserve a name (see Fee Schedule).

D. A foal’s name may be changed at any time prior to starting in its first race. Ordinarily, no name change will be permitted after a horse has started in its first race or has been used for breeding purposes. However, in the event a name must be changed after a horse has started in its first race, both the old and new names should be used until the horse has raced three times following the name change. The prescribed fee (see Fee Schedule) and the Certificate of Foal Registration must accompany any request to the Registry Office for a change of name.

E. Names of horses over ten years old may be eligible if they are not excluded under Rule 6(F) and have not been used during the preceding five years either in breeding or racing.
Names of geldings and horses that were never used for breeding or racing may be available five years from the date of their death as reported.

F. The following classes of names are not eligible for use:
1. Names consisting of more than 18 letters (spaces and punctuation marks count as letters);
2. Initials such as C.O.D., F.O.B., etc.;
3. Names ending in “filly,” “colt,” “stud,” “mare,” “stallion,” or any similar horse-related term;
4. Names consisting entirely of numbers. Numbers above thirty may be used if they are spelled out;
5. Names ending with a numerical designation such as “2nd” or “3rd,” whether or not such a designation is spelled out;
6. Names of persons unless written permission to use their name is on file with The Jockey Club;
7. Names of “famous” people no longer living unless approval is granted by the Board of Stewards of The Jockey Club;
8. Names of “notorious” people;
9. Names of racetracks or graded stakes races;
10. Recorded names such as assumed names or stable names;
11. Names clearly having commercial significance, such as trade names;
12. Copyrighted material, titles of books, plays, motion pictures, popular songs, etc., unless the applicant furnishes The Jockey Club with proof that the copyright has been abandoned or that such material has not been used within the last five years;
13. Names that are suggestive or have a vulgar or obscene meaning; names considered in poor taste; or names that may be offensive to religious, political or ethnic groups;
14. Names that are currently active either in racing or breeding, and names similar in spelling or pronunciation to such names, see 6(E);
15. Permanent names and names similar in spelling or pronunciation to permanent names. The list of criteria to establish a permanent name is as follows:
a. Horses in racing’s Hall of Fame;
b. Horses that have been voted Horse of the Year;
c. Horses that have won an Eclipse Award;
d. Horses that have won a Sovereign Award (Canadian Champions);
e. Annual leading sire and broodmare sire by progeny earnings;
f. Cumulative money winners of $2 million or more;
g. Horses that have won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont Stakes, The Jockey Club Gold Cup, the Breeders’ Cup Classic or the Breeders’ Cup Turf; and
h. Horses included in the International List of Protected Names.

G. In addition to the provisions of this Rule 6, the Registrar of The Jockey Club reserves the right of approval on all name requests. “

Let’s have some racehorse names from naming professionals, either here or over there in the comments at Above the Law.

Welcome to the Legend of French Lick

Nestled on a peaceful hillside in beautiful southern Indiana, this tranquil 12-acre retreat offers luxury accommodations and amenities within fenced, park-like grounds in a quiet country setting…a gated entrance, large pool and cabana, a lighted tennis court and, of course, a lighted basketball court.

“The commercialization of Larry Bird’s name in association with this former property is wholly and completely unauthorized and is blatantly being done for the sole purpose of profiting illegally from Larry Bird’s name,” a lawyer for Bird wrote in the complaint, which has received a lot of exposure in the news.

The resort that is the former home of Larry Bird has this disclaimer on its website:

Note. Legend of French Lick, LLC, an Indiana limited liability company, owns the former home of Larry Bird. Neither Larry Bird, nor the Larry Joe Bird Revocable Living Trust, nor any entity or person affiliated with Mr. Bird, nor any member of Mr. Bird’s family has any legal, financial or other interest in Legend of French Lick, LLC or the Legend of French Lick Resort.

We couldn’t reach Larry Bird for comment on the case, but we found a quote attributed to him: “I really don’t like talking about money. All I can say is that the Good Lord must have wanted me to have it. “

Click on Hugh MacLeod’s cartoon, or click here if you prefer, to see the point he’s illustrating with this image.

If you think you’d hafta be drunk to order meat-flavored drinks, you might not have heard of Jones Soda’s holiday special Turkey and Gravy Soda.

Here’s the BevNet review:

Jones Soda’s Turkey & Gravy soda is one of the strangest things we’ve ever tasted. First of all, the product uses an interesting formulation that contains a variety of ingredients rarely (if ever) seen in beverage products and it’s zero carb/calorie. Not to mention that we’ve never had turkey and gravy that was carbonated and sweetened with Splenda ;). Anyway, the product’s aroma definitely smells like turkey and gravy, but the flavor is another story. The taste is noticeably salty and has a mild sweetness to it. There is a slight “turkey 8 gravy”-like finish to the product, but the addition of carbonation and sweetness generally hide the taste otherwise. Honestly, it was pretty hard for any of our testers to keep from spitting the product out. So is this product a failure? No, not at all. We have to give Jones Soda credit for putting this product out there purely to create buzz — and they definitely succeeded on that front. The real challenge is yet to come — can Jones turn this buzz into something that helps energize the brand and gets consumers to buy more of the product? The potential is there, but only time will tell. Overall, we give this product good marks for creativity and execution, but we really hope meat flavored beverages don’t become a lasting trend ;)

One meat-flavored drink does not make a trend, you might say. But what if you combine the energy drink trend and the flavored water trend?

Isn’t Meat Water a natural? Now, I know, naming and branding aficionados will say that “Meat Water” is generic. What the market for meat-flavored energy drinks wants is something more evocative, more RAW.

Such was the case with the naming of the newest law school in the country, the Donald Bren School of Law at UC Irvine, named after a huge donation. And recently the Drexel University College of Law was renamed the Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law after “guess who” donated a lot of money to the law school.

Obviously, these new names don’t yet have the brand character of, say, Boalt Hall, named after that law school’s benefactor, the widow Boalt, donated the money for the original law school building on the Berkeley campus of the University of California in memory of her late husband, the lawyer and judge, John Henry Boalt.

But wait, in the interests of better naming and branding, the powers that be at Berzerkeley have decided it’s time for a new name, a better name than Boalt Hall, which is “renowned for having what is regarded as the best intellectual property program in the world, and has held the top spot in U.S. News and World Report rankings for 11 years running.”

So what new name did they approve for Boalt Hall?

University of California, Berkeley, School of Law?
UC Berkeley School of Law?
Berkeley Law?
Boalt Hall?
All of the above?

Whaaaa?

Officials at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law spent nearly $25,000 on a branding consultant to help them give the school a new name:

“UC Berkeley School of Law.”

Dean Christopher Edley Jr. said the money was well-spent because people will now understand that that the law school is tied to UC Berkeley.

He said he routinely has to clarify what and where “Boalt” is. When he gave a lecture recently at Howard University, the person introducing him turned to him and said, “I am sorry, but I am confused. Are there two law schools in Berkeley?”

“We are looking for ways to more clearly identify the law school with Berkeley so that outside audiences will have a clearer sense of what we are,” Edley said. “I view this not as a new name but as a way to remedy the confusion about the relationship between Berkeley, Boalt and UC Berkeley.”

The school will still be called Boalt “within the family,” he said.

I’m sorry, but I’m still confused.

From “The Land of The Grudge” (with pics of some Igor staffers):

Jay Jurisich radi u San Franciscu i među najboljim je stručnjacima za brendove. Jutarnjem je otkrio što je danas presudno za poslovni uspjeh te zašto će neke hrvatske tvrtke uvijek ostati samo regionalneSve je u imenu. Za jedan brend ništa nije toliko važno kao ime”, poslovna je filozofija Jaya Jurisicha koji je s tom krilaticom prije šest godina s kolegom Steveom Manningom u San Franciscu osnovao kompaniju Igor koja se bavi vjerojatno najzabavnijim, ali prilično unosnim poslom u svijetu biznisa.

Complete article

WEED, Calif. — Vaune Dillmann thought the wording on his bottle caps was just a clever play on the name of the northern California town where he brews his beer.

Federal alcohol regulators thought differently. They have ordered Dillmann to stop selling beer bottles with caps that say “Try Legal Weed.” The agency, which regulates the brewing industry, said the wording could “mislead consumers about the characteristics of the alcoholic beverage.”

Dillmann scoffs at the notion that his label has anything to do with smoking pot. “I’ve never tried marijuana in my life,” he told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “I don’t advocate that. It’s just our town’s name.”