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Corporate branding: Goodyear and the Pep Boys split hairs over brand names.

PHILADELPHIA, Apr. 4, 2002. For gravitas, we turn now to law.com with the news that Goodyear Tire's Name Doesn't Tread on Pep Boys:

The Pep Boys chain of automotive stores has lost its bid for an injunction against the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. now that a federal judge has found that Goodyear's new "Fortera" line of tires does not infringe on the trademark for the "Futura" line of tires sold by Pep Boys

In analyzing the two names, Senior U.S. District Judge Lowell A. Reed Jr. in Philadelphia found that,

...the suggestive meanings of the two trademarks set them apart since the word Fortera "conjures an image of strength (a fort) but is otherwise an arbitrary name with no particular meaning," while the word Futura "connotes the idea of a tire that, while manifest in the present, invokes a tire for the future."

There you have it from the judge himself, though we're not sure we buy the argument that the Futura tire is obviously "manifest in the present."

Our solution to the conflict would be to order Goodyear to change its tire to Futera and the Pep Boys to change its tire to Fortura. Either that or a mandated joint venture to be named Futilia.

Adding to Goodyear's legal hassles is the news that the Entire Universe intends to file a class action suit against them for polluting the collective language. Goodyear's lawyers are expected to argue that being saddled with a name like Fortera should be punishment enough. A compelling argument.