Suddenly the name is not generic and boring. Suddenly the name is unique and trademark protectable. And at the same time, a touch of class is added to a simple word that everyone knows - without going French with an accent.

Anyway, here are my professional suggestions. Let me know what you think or pass along the list, with due credit to Athol Foden of Brighter Naming.

1. Use a number in your name. e.g. 3Com, 2Wire, Tack360, etc. Works best if name is mostly seen online and not used much on the phone.
2. Use a different form of a verb.  e.g  Learning Spanish instead of Learn Spanish say. Or Brighter Naming instead of Bright Naming. Non-English languages often have lots of conjugations of their verbs providing even more options.
3. Personalize or localize the name.  e.g.  iFly, MySpinnerTricks, YourBicycleTracks, OurFishingTrips, TexasBigGameSupporters, ScottishCurlingClub, CollegePaymentsUSA, etc.
4. Coin new words from classic or other roots:  Miradiance  (Mira is Spanish/Latin for view), Frito Lay (Frito is Spanish for fried), Verantis (From verity = truth and Atlantis)
5. Use initials as well:   PFChangs, PrintDNA, SugarCRM, NGMoco
6. Combine parts of words: e.g. Solyndra from solar and cylinder, Sony from sonus and sonny, Transcera from transcend and era. Or even combine languages: e.g. NeuStar  (German + English words), Tambrio (English + Spanish).
7. Go Hawaiian, or African, or …     Akamai, Wiki, Ubuntu, Zynga
8. Squeeze vowels in (to make smoother pronunciations) like Avidasports, Affinaquest, or out (aka IM speak) to make for very short names like Flickr, Loopt, VCTRY.
9. Go phonetic with something that just sounds good and create your own meanings:   Cisco, Kinkos, Zanitar, Jamba, Brivo, Ariba, Skype
10. Work with a professional naming agency or consultant that tracks free domains and can also quickly implement one of the above techniques.

Number 10 is probably the least expensive solution when you consider the management time and legal headaches they also solve, especially now that competition has driven prices down to $6000 for corporate accounts, and much less for individuals or small businesses.

Now what would you do if you were the marketing team down at Del Monte Corp. with this great new energy drink blend that you have been so carefully cultivating and here comes the home and office energy story of the year with your same name?

Do you ignore them, knowing fuel cell energy companies are only in the spotlight briefly? Or do you play along and start talking about fuel cells for your body?

Exact match trademarks can be registered, of course, since trademarks are filed according to definite International Classes and these are in very different classes. As the supply of names continues to tighten, we will see lots more of this happening. I even recall last year seeing three different TV ads in the same week for 3 different products, all called Fusion. And none of them was one of the very popular fusion restaurants.

Maybe I will also need a copy of KwikEdit to get my site straightened out before I kew up to go to Kuwait.

During Jackson’s passing, his Neverland Ranch gained even more immense worldwide coverage. Ironically, when he bought it originally from Sycamore Valley Ranch, he renamed it, but he had subsequently become a part owner of Sycamore Valley Ranch and taken over the ownership. So much of the public immediately recognized the brand as being associated with Michael Jackson - and would attest to that if asked for a common opinion - even though there are many trademark applications and fights over the name. Pity Jackson didn’t properly protect it earlier, instead of the slew of filings on his death (assuming he could get the rights properly from Disney or J.M.Barrie Estate author of Peter Pan).

Enough legal, more interestingly, why does the name have such power, such interest, such fascination? It is a negative right? Wow. Great example of where a negative has become a positive. How much more over the top brandable than Sycamore Valley Ranch? Immeasurable…  with maybe even a touch of genius behind it. Most corporations I know would get all analytical and say it is too negative a name for us - but most of them outside Hollywood are not paid to dream!

Eloquent and beautiful.. but in this day and age Neverland is taken as a name. RIP Michael Jackson… we will leave your place name to your lawyers and family.

And then there is the exception: Invictus.  Fancy naming a movie after an old poem. But also how clever and inspiring. Because while this movie is about Mandela and his first days in office in South Africa, it is also about many other things as people wrestle with massive sociological change. So much more than a specific story. I especially liked all the little vignettes that Clint Eastwood added to the movie so you never get bored (I only just managed to stay awake in Avatar as it is so predictable).

Like many books, the title is taken from one small key episode in the whole work. Now don’t you forget the great last paragrah of William Ernest Henley’s epic poem:

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Now that we all know the Apple lawyers were laying a false trail (or there is more to come), isn’t it refreshing that the marketing geniuses there kept the new naming architecture clean and simple too. So now we can look forward to iPad, iBooks, etc.

But we expect that of Apple. Historically Polaroid has been a different story though, often falling over all their own wasted ink papers. Not now. The new consumer camera contains their instant print magic as well as being a digital camera. And it has the hip, sweet, simple and obvious name PoGo.

Congratulations. But the fun is only just starting. They have announced a co-branding deal with Lady Gaga of all people. Talk about moving from stuffy to hip and relevant! Will that be the Lady PoGo or the GagoPo or PaGoGa or PoLady…  ?

Yes Apple, we know you have lots of brand power and marketing reach, but we are not accustomed to seeing such boring heavy names from you. It is time for a new category name, even if you have to cross over something like you did in moving iPod from internet kiosk usage.

This time you have Kindle and Nook giving you a run for your money on the book front too. Of course, we know you plan to become the standard for video reviewing too. So why not Vpad, or Vpod or VMac or PadMac… almost anything is better than the langourous Tablet name.

Problem is, the publishing company for these books is called Foden Press and people ask why not Brighter Press or Brighter Publishing or similar. Yes, we have one product name mini-franchise spread across two different company names. And we are small and only have very limited branding dollars.

And the funny part is, I personally set it all up and even I was stumped by the question. I mean it is not rocket science after all. Then I thought about how I could have been so dumb until I realized that like a lot of brands, I wasn’t remembering that there is history involved here as well. In fact, Foden Press and Spreadsheet Marketing came along at least two or three years before the first Brighter anything, and at the time I didn’t want to register another business so I simply used my last name.  And I had never bothered to go back and fix it - always being too busy to redo the whole image set and marketing that goes with a company name.

Never mind, what we want to know is if you make a call on a Nexus One™, will it be routed via a Cisco Nexus® switch, will it work with the Nexus® measuring equipment and the Nexus® satellite radio hardware, will it use and support Nexus® typefonts, does it use a Nexus® plasma flat screen, does it compute like a Nexus® personal computer and connect to the Nexus® automotive measuring instruments, does it support Nexus® audio/video, run the Nexus® fluid dynamics program, is it based on Nexus® IC technology, can you download Nexus® erotic books from Virgin, and is all this supported by the Nexus® software support package?

Aren’t you glad they added the word one to make it unique? Luckily they didn’t pick 2000, because the Nexus 2000® was an old, old dictation machine. Google must be going corporate. So much for their former uniqueness streak.

All Nexus names used here are registered trademarks of their owners - too many to mention, but only a small sample of those fighting over the same name with the US Patent and Trademark office. Nexus one is not yet an approved or registered trademark.