"Name slop" warns that AI spits out polished but interchangeable names—repeating familiar patterns and suffixes—which hurts memorability, trust, and raises legal/rebrand risk. People buy meaning, not words; great names must be defensible, prono...

In this episode of Naming in the AI Age, Ashley Elliott explains why trademarking a name has become increasingly challenging. Global trademark filings have nearly doubled over the past decade, from 6 million in 2015 to...

Naming a brand requires both creative thinking and an understanding of how trademark examiners and courts evaluate potential conflicts, using frameworks like the USPTO’s DuPont factors and the courts’ Polaroid factors to assess likelihood of co...

In this episode of Naming in the AI Age, Mike Carr and Ashley Elliott discuss how to reduce legal risk in brand naming, using the Smucker’s vs. Trader Joe’s case as an example. They contrast descriptive names like Trader Joe’s Crustless Pean...

In this episode of Naming in the AI Age, Ashley Elliott explains how to read a USPTO trademark record using Nike as an example. She clarifies that multiple “Nike” entries represent different filings for various product...