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April 6, 2009
Taking a Look at Vook's Kooky Product Naming
The New York Times has run an article on the new "Vook" (or vook.tv) - a book that might help revolutionize the publishing industry by including video elements.
First, there's that pesky non-com naming thing again, which has already caused some irritation. If you want to successfully launch a new product, you need a dot-com.
Second, I think that we are getting closer to the era of digital readers, but we are not there yet. And with product names like "Vook," not too many serious authors are going to be won over.
It may be ground breaking technology, but the name itself just doesn't fit.
Vook is supposed to be pronounced like "book," which rhymes with "look," but is more naturally pronounced similarly to "kook." That slight differentiation may be a brand killer.
It just sounds wrong.
The fact that vook sounds different than book is one example of a name that is holding back the popularization of digital readers, but brand naming difficulties are nothing new to the e-reader industry.
Kindle is at the head of that list. Plastic Logic's reading device unfortunately follows suit.
As I previously mentioned, the era of digital readers may be in our near future, but we have yet to make that momentous transition from pen and parchment to the LCD screen. And product names like Vook are not going to push any popular authors to make the switch any faster.
Technorati Tags: Vook, Vook.tv, Digital Readers, Kindle, Product Names
Posted by William Lozito at April 6, 2009 8:45 AM
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As a consumer, I'd tend to agree that VOOK doesn't seem to inspire one to want to curl up with one by the fire to read while enjoying a glass of red wine -- it sounds wrong to me because it sounds too harsh, like a number of other unmentionable harsh terms ending in OOK.
As a trademark attorney, the mark appears to have sailed through examination at the Trademark Office, being filed by Vook LLC in January 2009 and being published for opposition later this month.
Not the most original piece of naming work, it appears. Upon reviewing the Trademark Office database. An individual from Maryland appears to have used VOOK back in 1999 for "multimedia reference products stored on electronic media."
More recently, in August 2008, Maddock Douglas, Inc., located in Elmhurst, Illinois, abandoned an intent-to-use application to register VOOKS for "Electronic publications, namely, BOOKS featuring ENTERTAINMENT AND EDUCATION CONTENT recorded on computer media" and other services.
These failed trademark registration attempts may have paved the way for legal protection, but one has to wonder whether the name will survive consumer scrutiny.