Buckblog: "Kestrel" is taken...and how!

"Kestrel" is taken...and how!

4 March 2006 — On the difficulty of naming things, and the absurdity of patents with over-applied buzzwords — 1-minute read

So, the search for a name continues. Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions! The Rails core team has been a huge help, too, especially Mike Clark, who has been tirelessly brainstorming with me for the last 2 days.

It is definitely not fun, searching through the list of registered trademarks and googling for names to see if they are taken. However, every once in a while you stumble across a gem that at least makes you smile in spite of it all.

Consider “kestrel”. It was one of the names I’ve been considering for the “software formerly known as SwitchTower”.

So I went to the USPTO site and began searching, only to stumble across this gem, describing the trademark for the term “kestrel” as applied for by “KESTREL TECHNOLOGIES, INC.”...

COMPUTER HARDWARE AND COMPUTER SOFTWARE FOR USE IN AGGREGATING, COLLECTING, CATEGORIZING, CALCULATING, CONVERTING, STORING, MAINTAINING, TRACKING, MONITORING, ANALYZING, PROCESSING, FORECASTING, REPORTING, SUMMARIZING, DISPLAYING, DISSEMINATING, AND MANAGING DATA AND INFORMATION FOR USE BY OTHERS IN THE FIELDS OF COMPUTERS, COMPUTER SOFTWARE, COMPUTER PROGRAMMING, COMPUTER DATABASE MANAGEMENT, GLOBAL COMPUTER INFORMATION NETWORKS, FINANCE, INVESTMENT, BANKING, ACCOUNTING, SECURITIES, INSURANCE, E-COMMERCE TRANSACTIONS, E-BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS, ELECTRONIC COMMERCIAL TRANSACTIONS AND ELECTRONIC FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS; COMPUTER SOFTWARE AND COMPUTER PROGRAMS FOR USE IN CAPITAL MANAGEMENT, FINANCIAL ANALYSIS, FINANCIAL CONSULTING, FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, SECURITIES TRADING, INVESTMENT, BROKERAGE, ASSET MANAGEMENT AND RISK MANAGEMENT AND RELATED INSTRUCTION MANUALS AND USER GUIDES SOLD AS A UNIT THEREWITH

Did they leave any stone unturned? Any loopholes they might have overlooked?

Take a pill, people, seriously…

Reader Comments

Here are my two ideas Tinder, because it gets something hot going quickly You also end up using Rails -> Subversion -> Tinder, and I mean who doesn't like alphabetic sequences? Rads, because it's fun to say, and then when you have to pitch it to higher ups you can sound huffy and say "It's the Rails Application Deployment System." I like Tinder. The alphabetic sequences thing isn't serious though.

Pat Maddox
4 Mar 2006

SwitchLawyer

outcast
5 Mar 2006

I built a site to search through available domain names. It might help with your search, if you can find a .com that's available you might have better luck with the related trademark: http://instantdomainsearch.com Cheers!

Beau Hartshorne
5 Mar 2006

The depressing thing is that it's so easy to run accross patents like that anytime you even make a cursory search of the USPO. I can't tell you how many times I've stumbled across patents that seem to cover the most common or trivial or foundational thing.

Andrew
6 Mar 2006

Hi, If you are looking for a good domain search engine and brain stroming tools take a look to www.domainsbot.com Good luck emiliano

emiliano
20 Mar 2006

The Buckblog

assorted ramblings by Jamis Buck

"Kestrel" is taken...and how!

Reader Comments