What's In A Name? A short essay on the subject of reused names copyright 2001 by Dave Van Domelen Every time a "classic" name gets reused in Transformers, someone raises a ruckus about lack of imagination on Hasbro's part and rails against the corporate mentality that drives the recycling of nomenclature. And occasionally, when a name ISN'T reused there's a fuss, as seen with Tripredacus Agent (aka Ravage with a different name). But this doesn't bother me at all. Two reasons: legal and "in character." LAWYERCONS, ATTACK! Legally, most Transformers names are unregistered trademarks. While the details of the law are a bit more complicated, here's a quick explanation on what a trademark is, and what the difference is between registered and unregistered ones. A trademark is a term or symbol or other distinctive MARK that a company uses in the course of its commercial TRADE. Hence trade mark. You can try to trademark just about any word or symbol that no one has trademarked yet in your particular area. "Particular area?" you may ask. Well, there's 42 distinct categories for trademarks (a little tidbit I picked up from the Trademark & Copyright Book from Sirius Comics). A trademark has to be applied for in each relevant area. So, having a trademark on the word "Ravage" when it comes to cartoons and toys doesn't mean someone else can't trademark "Ravage" for a comicbook. Now, once you have the trademark, you have to use it or lose it. This is to keep people from snapping up good terms and trademarking them so that companies have to come to them and pay exorbitant fees to use the names. You can generally get away with a lapse of up to three or four years by filing appropriate paperwork, but after that the term goes back into the pool for anyone to use. The only way to permanently keep a trademark is to register it. A registered trademark never expires, but it can be very difficult to get it registered. A good rule of thumb is that if the word is in the dictionary, you're going to have an uphill battle registering it. As a result, most companies don't try to register trademarks that are "real" words. Like, say, "ravage." Plus, registration costs time and money, so a company is only likely to use it for the big properties that are words they made up. For instance, I just pored over the box for Nightscream. The only registered trademark I found was for Cheetor. That's right...Hasbro has not registered "Transformers" as a trademark! I bet they've tried, though. But transformer is a real word, so the application was probably denied. So...where does this leave us? Hasbro has a large library of terms they they have claimed trademark to, but haven't registered for whatever reason. They have trademarks in toy form, animated form, comic form, etc. But any term that doesn't get used every few years will revert to unprotected status, meaning another toy company can come along and trademark the term. Take Ravage as a case in point. I don't have spies in Hasbro legal, but I'm betting this is what's happened. In 1984, Hasbro got trademark protection for the term "Ravage" as applied to a robotic panther. They got it for toys, cartoon and comic. The toy is sold through 1986, the cartoon has Ravage appearing through maybe 1988 or 1989, and the comic stops using him around the same time. By the early 1990s, all the trademarks are in danger of being lost. The G2 cartoon saves the cartoon trademark by having Ravage appear again on TV, but the comic trademark lapses and Marvel snaps it up for Ravage 2099. And, apparently, someone grabbed the term for a toy at some point in the 1990s and held onto it. Thus, when Agenda rolls around, Hasbro is able to let Mainframe use the Ravage name and likeness, since they still own the broadcast trademark. But the toy has to be called something different (and before you ask about the Japanese version, it's called Jaguar). And, apparently, whoever now owns the Ravage trademark for toys guards it jealously, since there wasn't even a snide in-reference such as "The Tripredacus Agent is reknowned for ravaging his foes" in the techspec. If you can't register it, use it or lose it. Harsh realities of the Intellectual Property world. A MOUNTAIN OF MOHAMMED Okay, I've covered the crassly commercial reasons for reusing names. But how to explain it in the context of the story? "Mohammed" is the single most common name in the world. "Jesus" is a very common name in hispanic countries. And if my sources aren't leading me astray, Chinese Premier Jiang Zemin is named after a legendary Chinese hero. People name their offspring...and themselves (i.e. Mohammed Ali, nee Cassius Clay)...after major historical and religious figures. For all that they're alien robots, Transformers have basically human ways of thinking and feeling, so it makes sense that they might adopt human-like patterns of naming as well. Sometimes it's pure ego...Megatron in Beast Wars definitely picked the name himself to draw the comparison to the great leader of the past. Other times, it might be an honorary title, such as Optimus Primal's name. And then there's the datatrax that newborn Maximals and Predacons get. It seems likely to me that the newborn Cybertronian picks his or her name based on the information contained therein, and while many pick original names, others find inspiration in names from the past. Renaming is also apparently commonplace when a Cybertronian takes on a new body, as shown by the "I'm a cheetah...no, CHEETOR!" bit from the first episode of Beast Wars. Just has humans change their names sometimes to suit their personalities, I'm sure Cybertronians do. And why NOT take the name of a deceased hero to honor his or her memory? Who's to say there aren't a dozen Arcees (one of which is related to Rattrap) on Cybertron, especially considering that Arcee is one of the few role models for female Cybertronians? So, when all is said and done, I really have no problem at all with the reuse of names. It's good legal sense, and it's not like humans don't do it all the time. David (after the king of Israel) John (after the apostle) Van Domelen (after my father)