Did You Know?
The Kodak Name

George Eastman constructed the Kodak name with care. He is quoted as saying: "The letter K has been a favorite with me - it seems a strong, incisive sort of letter. It became a question of trying out a great number of combinations of letters that made words starting and ending with 'K'. The word 'Kodak' is the result."

George Eastman

However it is his comments to the British Patent Office, when registering Kodak as a trademark, that are most illuminating:

"This is not a foreign name or word; it was constructed by me to serve a definite purpose. It has the following merits as a trade-mark word: first it is short; second, it is not capable of mispronunciation; third, it does not resemble anything in the art and cannot be associated with anything in the art".

Trademark protection is just as important today as it was in George Eastman's time, perhaps more so. And after more than 100 years his words still spell out some of the fundamental principles for anyone wanting to register a brand name as a trademark.

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