Get off my island: Porsche Cayman gets a little frisky.
This week’s product naming trademark war comes from the unlikely duo of Porsche and Crocs. The two companies have been sharing the product name Cayman for the past few years. Now, the German carmaker is suing the American clogmaker in a German court for alleged trademark infringement.
In honor of Sesame Street’s 40th birthday, the City of New York temporarily renamed a portion of Columbus Avenue after the beloved children’s show. According to New York Magazine, creators originally considered naming the show “123 Avenue B” but decided against it for being too New York-ish.
Chrysler is getting ready to spread its new wings as part of its rebranding effort. The new wings logo will be featured on all upcoming Chrysler-branded vehicles. Some have noted that the size and shape of the logo make it very difficult to read the company’s wordmark.
Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit is at a loss of what to rename the unit that oversees all of its hedge fund operations. Its current moniker, Citi Alternative Investments, has gotten a bad name after two years of underperformance.
The latest reincarnation of the search engine we all know and love goes by the name Google Caffeine. Two Google employees have said that the imminent introduction of this latest search architecture will push boundaries in size, speed, accuracy, and comprehensiveness. Hm…sounds just like regular caffeine.
i don’t think porsche is so crazy. there is a kind of superagency principle in trademark law that if you are big enough, it doesn’t matter what category your antagonist occupies. for example, if i wanted to come out with a product called coca-cola car wax, i would be in trouble because coca-cola is so big that people could easily assume that they are now in the car wax business even if it’s something they would never do. it seems to me that porsche is in a similar position. they are not quite big enough to own the name ‘cayman’ for the entire known universe, but can you blame them for trying? besides, anyone who came that close to owning volkswagen needs to show the world that they still carry a big stick.
I agree, I think that Porsche is getting a hard time over this.