Initially, the company was called Startsmart, but Foote thought the name related to raising children, and other people reversed it, calling it Smart Start, which is a Kellogg's cereal. So the company tried to find a new name. After discovering that its first 10 choices were taken, executives enlisted a dozen employees to brainstorm and came up with 285 names. It was a major process. At least its name corresponds to its product.
Some companies choose odd names intentionally.
Plus, tying the company's title to gift certificates would limit Flooz's options, Feuer says. Etoy stands as an especially powerful example. In November, the eToys retailer sued the etoy artists for copyright infringement and won an injunction that temporarily shut down the artists' site. Though Martin Konopken, chief counsel for Autodesk claims that the etoy-eToys battle had nothing to do with Autodesk's decision to forgo litigation against The3DStudio, he figures there will be a lot more settlements. He says it's too expensive and too time consuming to go after every Web site that seems to infringe on a company's copyright.