Being the boring SOB that I am I'd prefer something like Tk::IMClient so I'd have some vague idea what it did :-)

Hear, hear! Not to mention you steer clear of any problems by using a completely descriptive name.

Makeshifts last the longest.

You don't want it to be descriptive, because then you can't trademark it (well, you probably could, but it wouldn't stand up in court). And you definitely don't want to choose something that's already trademarked.

What you need is a word that doesn't mean anything right now.

I already suggested kinsbat on CB before. It's based on your name and it doesn't (well, at least didn't a few days ago) have any hits on Google. Which is a good indication. Maybe it should be kynsbat to make it more special.

In any case, think of something new. My brainstorm just came up with (some may be tongue in cheek, but hey, Parrot also started as a joke).

• peorux (people's rubbish exchange)
• mexin (mind expanding interaction)
• inchaco (internet chatting community)
• locobus (local community building system)

And then you take these words and try them out on Google. And you find that all have hits except peorux. So you keep that one on your list. And repeat until you find something that you like and you verified it's not getting you into trouble.

Liz

You don't want it to be descriptive, because then you can't trademark it

Note that you are very unlikely to get the trademark for the name of a free program anyways. Just claiming that the term is a trademark of yours has no legal meaning if you cannot prove that you actually trade using that name. Giving stuff away for free is not trade; you must have received something in return, even if it is just $1 or some other kind of consideration.

And your trademark will only be protected in the geographical location where your trade is taking place. If you "sell" a license to your buddy in the same city, you will not have a valid claim to the trademark outside the city.

One way around this is to register an "intend to use" trademark. But this will cost money and must be renewed every year.

Unlike patents, there is no "prior art" in trademark protection. Just because you use a term for your free software does not prevent someone else from using the term for an unrelated product and them starting trading using this term. They will then have a valid claim on this term as their trademark and can ask you from using it if there is cause for confusion of their customers. The fact that you used the term first is irrelevant if you didn't "trade" under it and didn't register it.

Given all this, I wonder if using a descriptive term isn't a better idea: it makes it less likely that someone else will claim it as their trademark later and force you to change your name again.

As expected, the above does not constitute legal advice, yada, yada, get a lawyer to get a qualified legal opinion.

If you're looking for user-deprecating names, chattel comes to mind.

As for Mercury, that's in use in plenty of places, plus it's kind of overworked. (Plus, Mercury was plenty of things besides being a messenger for the gods, including being the patron of thieves and liars and whatnot.)

Actually, that makes it more appropriate for a chat program, doesn't it? Hm. What's the Roman name for Mercury? Hermes, I think?

And if you're not concerned about the truly tacky connotations...why not BatChat? Da-na-da-na-da-na-da-na-da-na-da-na-da-na-BatChat!

-----------------------
You are what you think.

I received a lot of ++ votes for that suggestion, and I think it's a better name than any of the ones you are considering. I know many people who would like that as the name of their IM client. Just think: people could then say they are "pimping" instead of "IMing". It's catchy. It also goes along with the Gimp.

People will have different opinions on every name, so maybe this would a good poll for our voting booth? . . . Tye :)

*Ahem*
• PIMP: Photographic Image Management Package
• PiMP Nullsoft Plug-in Mini Packager
A casual search on "drybone" revealed no software (or products for that matter) named drybone, so I suggest drybone.

update: I'm a frickin genius!!!! bilkmone

MJD says "you can't just make shit up and expect the computer to know what you mean, retardo!"

I run a Win32 PPM repository for perl 5.6.x and 5.8.x -- I take requests (README).

** The third rule of perl club is a statement of fact: pod is sexy.

Paranoid as I am, I am wondering whether or not "Instant Messaging" and/or "IM" aren't somehow trademarked. I surely hope not. But if it were, PIMP would be in the danger zone ;-(

How about "Pyama"? "Perl's Yet Another Message Application".

In Dutch it means "nightgown", but who cares. It definitely is not descriptive for what it does.

Liz

How about "Pyama"? In Dutch it means "nightgown".

You sound like a nice person, so I will only smile at this one. :)

Suggestions: Milkboned. Murkury. Quicksliver. Ielement. Quarker. .....plays on words that probably haven't been used yet. The ideas came from thinking back a couple of days when I was walking in the Garment District of Downtown Los Angeles, and saw Qucci handbags (knockoffs of Gucci).

Dave

"If I had my life to do over again, I'd be a plumber." -- Albert Einstein

Unless US Trademark law is totally different from European trademark law, you trademark a word for a particular market. E.g. you use the trademark "Mercury" for outboard motors; others may use "Mercury" for something entirely unrelated.

Of course, if you are a "deep pocket" company, you register all your trademarks for lots of things so you corner not only the market, but half of the economy!

Another thing you should think of: check if the word you choose has some meaning in another language. It might be perfect in English, but people in Mongolia might laugh their socks off (or worse get really offended)!

CountZero

"If you have four groups working on a compiler, you'll get a 4-pass compiler." - Conway's Law

...check if the word you choose has some meaning in another language...

A check on Google should be helpful in that respect ;-)

Anecdote Alert:
In the beginning of the 80ies, there used to be a (Japanese) mini-computer manufacturer called "Facomp". They never really took off in the States, because nobody really knew how to pronounce the name: "Fake 'em"? "F*ck 'em" ?.

Can't even find them on Google anymore. I guess then they don't exist anymore (at least not under that name ;-)

Liz

Unless US Trademark law is totally different from European trademark law, you trademark a word for a particular market. E.g. you use the trademark "Mercury" for outboard motors; others may use "Mercury" for something entirely unrelated.

Yes, but you might find yourself in a position where you have to prove that confusion is unlikely.

Abigail

The Enron folks were going to name their company Enteron. Pity they managed to find out in the very last second that it means "bowel" in Greek... :)

Makeshifts last the longest.

bite the wax tadpole (google for it)

---

it says she can do math, but will she recognize 8 / 0?

We can only hope they've put in those safeguards.

Worst case scenario: She succeeds in dividing by zero, and suddenly little Tiphany-Amber's bedroom becomes the center of a howling vortex of nonspace, frying the neighborhood with sparkling discharges of zero-point energy.

- slashdot

Suggestions: Milkboned. Murkury. Quicksliver. Ielement. Quarker. .....plays on words that probably haven't been used yet.

That argument actually won't hold under trademark law. The law is there to prevent confusion - names that are too similar are prohibited as well. You can't put a cola on the market and call it "Koka Kola" for instance, that's just too close to the brand name of that lovely black sugar water.

Abigail

AFAIK, Mercury, Quicksilver, and Element should be safe. Even though there are companies that use those names, they're just regular old English words. Milkbone differs in that it's a totally fabricated word. Good point about Quark. That's probably even worse than using Milkbone.

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it says she can do math, but will she recognize 8 / 0?

We can only hope they've put in those safeguards.

Worst case scenario: She succeeds in dividing by zero, and suddenly little Tiphany-Amber's bedroom becomes the center of a howling vortex of nonspace, frying the neighborhood with sparkling discharges of zero-point energy.

- slashdot

AFAIK, Mercury, Quicksilver, and Element should be safe. Even though there are companies that use those names, they're just regular old English word

That has nothing to do with it. Especially considering that Mercury market collaboration and messaging solutions.

Oracle is a plain English word. Good luck in trying to use it to name any computer application ;-) A registered trade mark is a registered trade mark. English word or not.

If you're going to be making a commercial product go find a lawyer. If you're not, doing what Liz suggested and find something that doesn't come up with any google results would seem a sensible option.

--
"I just read perlman:perlboot," said Tom, objectively.
naChoZ

I'm going to stick my neck out here.

I downvoted this (and I very rarely downvote) because I really don't see what it's got to do with perl. I've got nothing against OT stuff (on the contrary), if I feel that I (or others) can gain anything from it, whether enlightenment or a wry grin. Indeed, the first time this question was asked, here, it didn't even occur to me to downvote it, and I found some of the discussion to be interesting.

However, I think that bringing up virtually the same topic twice in a little more than a week is too much and that there must be better places for discussing product names, whether for a new brand of rubber chicken or for a new perl application.

dave

PS My suggestion: bonemilk :-)