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Comment by tux3 | Hacker News Reader

I have to admit the situation is a little funny, but Dropbox will probably have an easier time justifying their use of the word "Infinite" that Infinit justifying "Dropboxe".

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Both infinite and dropbox are standard dictionary words.

Dropboxes are also not limited to the physical world, as many online educational software platforms (that pre-date Dropbox the company) call their shared storage areas for assignment submissions a "dropbox".

I think the parent comment meant that Infinite is a word, and also a sensible name for Dropbox to name their product. Dropboxe is a silly neologism that only makes sense in the context of Dropbox's recent press, and not a good name for a product outside of this context.

>I think the parent comment meant that Infinite is a word, and also a sensible name for Dropbox to name their product. Dropboxe is a silly neologism that only makes sense in the context of Dropbox's recent press, and not a good name for a product outside of this context.

* Infinit is not releasing a product, this is a satirical post which "rebrands" their base service under a faux name.

* Dropbox is releasing a service which directly competes with Infinit called Infinite

If you think Dropbox can directly compete with Infinit using Infinite, then you should join me for my new Googl search engine!!

Such are the risks of naming your company after a common word that describes the product.

>Such are the risks of naming your company after a common word that describes the product.

What? Not at all! Infinit has a trademark and will almost assuredly destroy Dropbox in court, including getting an injunction against even using the Dropbox Infinite name during the case.

The real risk is on Dropbox: Not doing their homework and attempting to name a product something that happens to be legally too close to a trademark from a competitor.

What you're saying is that it would be acceptable for me to make a Googol search engine, since googol is a real word and it's Google's fault for picking a name so similar to a real word.

EDIT: Also consider that Infinit is as close to the word Infinite as iPhone is to the word "phone". Do you think Apple assumed the same risks you bring up by naming their product 1 letter away from a common word?

I don't know anything about Infinit or Infinite, but I do know that no product could be described as "infinite"

The USPTO may have a differing opinion.

Just because a word is a common dictionary word doesn't mean it can't be trademarked with limited use. For example, you can't launch a new computer and name it Apples. However you can launch a new type of lipstick called Apples (assuming it's not trademarked in that context already).

If the original trademark owner can show that there's the potential for confusion among consumers, that the products are competitive, Infinit may very well prevail. Dropbox's lawyers didn't do a great job at due diligence here.

I like how Infinit responded.

I think it's a joke. They ain't going to actually use it for any product.

I think we all know the article is a joke. :) But people seem to be missing that tux3's comment was also tongue-in-cheek (at least, that is my interpretation).

Also, for ages Macs have had a "Public/Drop Box" folder as a write-only way for other people to give you things (and it actually makes a lot more sense in that interpretation). It did make it a little confusing when starting to use Dropbox itself, as then you have "~/Dropbox" and "~/Public/Drop Box".

Yep, it makes sense because when you drop something into the box, you can't get it back out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_box

Dictionary words can still be trademarked.

Only if they refer to something non-generic in their domain of application. Microsoft nearly lost the "Windows" trademark with the Lindows lawsuit, because a window was a generic term for the kind of UI that Windows does (when they realised that they might lose the trademark, they decided to settle out of court with Lindows instead). You can't sell produce under the name Apple, but you can sell computers under that name. "Dropbox" is a more generic term than "Infinite", so I can see how it could run into trouble if someone came up with a similar file sharing service and also called it a drop box.

Dropboxe isn't a standard dictionary word

Yeah but the dictionary words are "dropbox" and "infinite", not "dropboxe" and "infinit". If Dropbox was called Dropboxe and Infinit had started a project called "Dropbox" that would have made sense, but like this they are just asking for a lawsuit (but only if this was a real project, of course)...

"infinit" is a dictionary word in the language spoken by the company founders.

If you mean french for the infinit.one founders, it's actually spelled "Infini".

"dropbox" is not a dictionary word.

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/drop-...

Is anyone else sick of people having to justify the words they use to describe their ideas? It's one of the most toxic effects of IP.

Nope. Perhaps: if it requires justification, it requires revision.

I personally dislike 'Project Infinite' because the only thing I think of in context of dropbox and infinity is infinite storage, which this is not. It's misleading.

How else would you do it, though? If anyone could call their product whatever they wanted how would you know that your Apple iPad was actually an Apple iPad until you tried to use it? Look at the thriving counterfeit markets in China.

So, first of all, you are talking about straight-up fraud. I don't think anybody will actually mistake Dropboxe for Dropbox.

But yes, I think that in an information age society, we can surely make sense of the myriad of product names and their varying level of veracity without needing to wonder beforehand whether a particular name will warrant the hammer of government intervention.

>I don't think anybody will actually mistake Dropboxe for Dropbox.

Nearly all phishing attempts rely on users mistaking m with rn or not noticing an extra/similar/missing letter. eg Citibank vs Citlbank or Wellsfargo vs Wellsfarrgo. People make that mistake all the damn time - so I'm not sure how you can say with any certainty nobody will mistake Dropboxe with Dropbox.

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