HACKER Q&A
📣 upwardbound

Is the name R2 short enough to be free of trademark?


If so, it would be amazing if those of us who feel like it could name our chatbot projects "My Cool Chatbot RELEASE 2" and say "Hey R2" for the wake phrase, even for commercial use!

I do feel that there should be a strong case to be made that 2 characters should not be a long enough name to qualify as brandable.

I hope so; would love to hear from you all! If this is legal I am ABSOLUTELY going to release various bots called R2. One of the best things about the R2 name is it feels gender neutral, which is beneficial as a default: (see https://en.unesco.org/EQUALS/voice-assistants )

  👤 GianFabien Accepted Answer ✓
Why don't you search the trademark registry of your country? Once registered in one country you might be able to gain trademarks in other countries under the Geneva Convention.

You might not need a trademark attorney. I have registered several trademarks in Australia using the self-service portal. Obviously every country is different. But the general principles are global. However, the costs can become quite considerable, i.e. many thousands of USD to gain TM registration in most countries.

👤 dave4420
I don’t believe there’s any such thing as “too short to trademark”. If it’s long enough to be a recognisable name, it’s long enough to be trademarked.

E.g. there are UK phone brands called “BT”, “O2”, and “Three”.