Why corporate naming battles will become more prevalent
19 May 2021
Naming a company has always been difficult, with founders needing to strike the right balance between meaning and trademark/domain availability. Now, though, the naming battle has extended to company descriptions.
Driving the news: Farmer's Dog, a VC-backed fresh dog food startup, is pushing for legislation in New York state that would create new legal standards for what types of pet product can be labeled as "food."
- This comes shortly after Chime, a San Francisco-based fintech valued by VCs at over $14 billion, agreed to stop calling itself a "bank," in a settlement with California regulators.
- Texas legislators on Tuesday passed a bill that would prohibit food-makers from using words like "meat" or "beef" in their names if they don't contain actual animal products. The legislation was supported by cattle ranchers, and opposed by companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods (maker of the Impossible "burger").
The ostensible goal of these rules is consumer protection. Truth in advertising. At the same time, though, they can run up against free speech rights and the reality that innovation has a habit of remolding definitions.
The bottom line: Expect such fights to become more prevalent, as both startups and incumbents seek to literally define their industries.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.