Scoff all you want. Kraft Foods is going for it. The company is splitting into two public entities and one half of it — its global snacks business — will be known as Mondelēz International. 

The shareholder vote at the company's May 23rd annual general meeting on the name change wasn’t even close, either. More than 90 percent of those who voted gave the new name the OK, according to a press release.

The word Mondelēz, selected from an internal employee competition, is a "portmanteau" combination of the Latin word for world (“monde”) and “delez,” which is supposed to suggest deliciousness. Sticking "International" on at the tail end gives it that global feel the company is in search of.Continue reading...

When Kraft Foods announced in March that it would name its new global snack business “Mondelēz” as part of its upcoming corporate split, the world basically snorted in disdain. Say what? The pronunciation isn’t even exactly clear. Kraft says it's supposed to be pronounced "Mohn-dah-LEEZ," please.

Some crafty exec came up with the idea of combining the Latin words for “world” and “delicious.” It was a high-faluting idea that got dragged down through the gutter pretty quickly.

Shareholders in the company will get their chance to give their opinion on the name at the company's annual general meeting on Wednesday that will decide whether the maker of Oreos and Fig Newtons (sorry: Newtons) should be housed under the proposed Mondelēz name or not, according to the Associated Press.

A new name is necessary because Kraft is separating into two entities, one that needs a new name for the half that will house its global snacking brands, while the Kraft name will be used for the half housing its North American CPG/grocery brands. So the new name, whether it ends up being Mondelēz or not, must work for a worldwide audience.Continue reading...

With more than 250 million folks on Facebook, at least a few of them are likely to be bikers, and Harley-Davidson fans, so one of them thought he'd launch a community for his fellow Harley-heads.

That's what inspired Harley brand loyalist Jimmy Coulbourne to start a social network for bikers and named it HarleySpace.com in honor of the bike they all love to ride.

Well, the Milwaukee-based company was not a big fan of that move. They took the issue to court and now the 36-year-old Coulbourne has changed the name of the site to IronRides.com, though he’s not very happy about it. 

"They said I was trying to profit off their name," Coulbourne said, according to the York Daily Record. "HarleySpace isn't their name. It's Harley-Davidson. If they think they own HarleySpace, why didn't they own HarleySpace?"Continue reading...

ICANN’s plan to open up the Internet to a new level of addressing in the form of custom top level domains is delayed… due to technical difficulties. The already besieged initiative, as we reported last month, is under scrutiny for a systemic glitch as explained in a statement last Thursday from ICANN chief operating officer Akram Atallah:

ICANN constantly monitors the performance of the TLD Application System (TAS). Recently, we received a report of unusual behavior with the operation of the TAS system. We then identified a technical issue with the TAS system software.

ICANN is taking the most conservative approach possible to protect all applicants and allow adequate time to resolve the issue. Therefore, TAS will be shut down until Tuesday at 23:59 UTC - unless otherwise notified before that time.

In order to ensure all applicants have sufficient time to complete their applications during the disruption, the application window will remain open until 23:59 UTC on Friday, 20 April 2012.

We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. If you have any questions, please contact the gTLD Customer Service Center (CSC) via the CSC portal.

So far, 839 companies have paid $185,000 to submit vanity domains in response to ICANN’s approval last June of an increase in gTLDs (generic top-level domains) from the current 22. The plan is to offer new benefits to Internet users such as the ability to create new TLDs in non-Latin, non-English scripts. Continue reading...

H&M today confirmed the name for the new higher-priced store brand it's planning to open in 2013, following rumors that it was developing a new sub-brand to extend its appeal to those shoppers who zoom in whenever the fast-fashion retailer collaborates on a diffusion line with a high-end fashion designer.

A publicist for the fashion-conscious Swedish-based retailer told AFP "it is correct that H&M will launch a new chain in 2013 called & other stories, but this is all the available information we have as of today." The retailer also confirmed to just-style.com that the new store brand will launch in Europe, and will "build on the positive experience of Cos."

H&M's stable of retail brands includes the higher-end Cos in addition to Monki, Weekday and Cheap Monday. A spokeswoman told Fashionologie that the new store brand "will not be a luxury brand, but it will be a retail chain that will follow the same ambition as H&M, to offer our customers the best price for a comparable item."

The & other stories name taps into a popular theme in retail, where creating a brand story is red hot. Witness the Stefan Sagmeister-branded Story, a New York concept store that launched in February and changes its theme, fixtures, brand partners and inventory every four to eight weeks. Its current theme: color.

If the Tube system in London confuses you already, you might want to skip heading to England for the Olympics this summer. Just to confuse you a little more, a new map has come out of the Underground with 361 station stops renamed for Olympic greats.

The map is being sold on Transport for London's website prior to the 2012 Summer Games. Each subway stop of the London Underground Olympics Legend map is "renamed" for athletes from different sport, so one is all swimming while another is all track and field. The map was designed by former BBC sports journalist Alex Trickett and sports historian David Brooks.

The duo chose an American athlete to represent the main Olympic venue's stop: swimmer Michael Phelps, whose 14 gold medals make him the most successful Olympian of all time. The station nearby is Cassius Clay, named for the famed boxer who fought in the 1960 Olympics of Rome and won gold before changing his name to Muhammad Ali. Longtime rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are next to each other, with Fed getting the bigger tube stop.Continue reading...

Two days ago we reported that the mother of Florida teen shooting victim Trayvon Martin had applied to trademark terms related to his name, which was picked up by Yahoo and other outlets. In that report, we specifically took the position that the move was a "smart" move by a grieving mother to protect her son's name.

Now, another trademark application proves how wise Martin's mom was. And yet, did she make a mistake by not beefing up her trademark application?Continue reading...

As if there wasn't enough animosity, misinformation and outrage to go around in the Trayvon Martin case, now the dead boy's mother is moving to trademark her son's name. 

According to the Associated Press,

(A)n attorney for Martin's mother confirmed that she filed trademark applications for two slogans containing her son's name: "Justice for Trayvon" and "I Am Trayvon." The applications said the trademarks could be used for such things as DVDs and CDs. The trademark attorney, Kimra Major-Morris, said in an email that Fulton wants to protect intellectual property rights for "projects that will assist other families who experience similar tragedies." Asked if Fulton had any profit motive, the attorney replied: "None."

Some might argue that the trademark applications have nothing to do with innocence, guilt, or the character of the grieving family; this is just how things are done in America now and those looking for ulterior motives probably understand outrage more than trademark law.Continue reading...