Our Naming Services
SELECTION, SCREENING AND CLEARANCE

The client receives our suggested first cut list, along with the backup candidates and the two combined, the alphabetized master list. We often categorize the candidates in the first cut list by naming direction.

With client participation, we then jointly select from 20 to as many as 40 potentially viable solutions (the quantity depending on the legal profile of the category), for preliminary availability screening.

Clients are responsible, with counsel, for all legal judgments. Often, however, to minimize time and costs this first screening step is performed for our client by a leading specialist counsel experienced in working with us… R. J. Heher, of the San Francisco firm of Fenwick & West, and overseas associates as required. Jointly we craft a legal search strategy to balance search costs and time requirements.

In triage fashion, candidates are identified as probably, possibly, and probably not available, and a "short list" selected from the first two categories.

In addition to full legal search, the short list is then evaluated for linguistic safety, phonetic clarity and graphic potential, to assist in final name recommendations. We make every effort to present at least two and preferably three final, available options for client selection.

Consumer or other-audience research can be an invaluable assistance in intermediate and final screening of name candidates for products and services. In the naming of companies, as a practical matter consumer research is less often of value; better decisions are likely to be made on the basis of the technical and strategic merits of the candidate names than on the basis of audience reaction. We encourage focus groups or similar research when the name is primarily for marketing use. We can assist as desired in research design, sourcing, direction and interpretation.