What’s in a name?

iPad – The joke of the week. Whether or not the product is any good seems to no longer be the point of discussion.

Now I wasn’t even going to bother writing about the iPad because of the hundreds of articles on the web already discussing it’s qualities, or lack thereof in some cases. However I’ve noticed the trend go from it’s ability to simply remarks about it’s name. I recently stumbled across this article stating that apple may just end up being at the end of a lawsuit over rights to the name “iPad”.

Above the blatant disregard for trademarked names apple obviously cared little about. I can see the need for some companies, like Fujitsu, to defend the name it’s already released a product under. The question I have after this epic failure in brand naming, why would anyone want to retain a products name that even resembles the joke line that has followed this launch? There are times when any press is NOT good press, especially when it results in consumers opinion of a product to be associated with toiletries or hygiene products (unless of course that is your line of business).

I pose this question, why spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of wasted man power to fight for a name that has, within days, become a huge public joke? Someone that knows nothing about the product will now start with a poor first impression that has to then be overcome just to reach a neutral stance before they can be sold.

All companies associated with this name should likely second guess their brand name, entertain the idea of simply settling in court to avoid further “comments from the peanut gallery”. Making a public mess over it will bring press around, but that’s not necessarily a name any of these companies should want being tweeted about. Except loss, take or give credits and hold a board meeting about changing the name.

Stephen Hutcheon of the Sydney Morning Herald stated "Slate is a little bit 'Flintstones,' " referring to the buzz that the iPad may have been called iSlate. Well, Flinstones is far better then Max-iPad. Australia is already commenting on the iPad name. World Wide joke it seems, and that’s good? Apple seems to already hold the license for iSlate, why not put it to better use?

What is your take? Do you think apple should fight to hold the title of iPad? Do you think the joke will just “fade away” as Hutcheon suggests, or is internet buzz still driven by high school like jokes?