Cairo – May 12, 2010

Solutions Consulting (SC), a well-established business consulting organization, recognized in Egypt and across the Middle East / North Africa region, provides world-class consultancy through its three business units: Integrated Marketing Solutions, Advance Corporate Solutions as well as Training and Education Programs. Their consulting expertise covers the whole spectrum of marketing and sales: marketing strategy and planning, ongoing marketing support, marketing research and market studies, strategic brand management, retailing and franchising, and marketing audits.

On May 11 & 12, 2010, Solutions Consulting hosted a two-day Seminar about Branding and Naming at the InterContinental Hotel in Cairo. One hundred Egyptian professionals, marketing and sales executives as well as general managers, attended the Seminar. It was the occasion for Noha Alaa – Solutions Consulting’s Principal & Senior Marketing Consultant –  to present SC’s Brand Development Model.

It was a great opportunity for Delphine Parlier, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Quensis, to take the audience through the marketing, linguistic and legal aspects of brand name development, as well as demonstrate Quensis new direct-query naming offer: C-QUENS.

At the end of a very fruitful seminar, both Dr. Ahmed Taher, Chairman & CEO  for Solutions Consulting, and Delphine Parlier signed the Partnership Agreement, for successful cooperation in Egypt.

Creating a name for both French and Arabic speaking countries is quite a linguistic challenge, because Arabic language forms words and concepts differently than French. 

Certain sounds exist in Arabic, but not in our phonetic system. For example, Arabic has 2 sounds [d], represented by 2 letters D, 2 sounds and 2 T letters [t] and 2 sounds and 2 S letters [s]… On the other hand, certain sounds and letters exist only in Latin alphabets, and not in Classical Arabic: G, V and P.

Arabic words are formed from triliteral, or sometimes quadriliteral roots, mostly made
of consonants. These « matrices » represent the backbone of a word; the process of suffixation but mostly the process of prefixation and infixation (inserting letters Inside a word) allow to create, through derivation, the diversity of words based on a certain concept.

For example, the root f-t-H would carry the notions of «opening» and «victory». Without any derivations, fataHa means «to open». The first derivation would be to double the central consonant – fattaHa – to create the meaning of «to open/to flourish» (like a flower) or to «stimulate» (appetite). The second derivation – an infixation of an â (long [a]) after the first consonant –, fâtaHa, would create the meaning of «to open oneself to somebody». The derivation tafattaHa (prefixation of ta- and the doubling of the central consonant) would give the meaning of «to flourish», «to grow». infataHa – prefixation of in- – gives, in technical fields, the meaning, of «to unblock ».

In view of the linguistic structure explained above, the experience of our recent drug name creations for Arabic-speaking countries shows us that many Arabic roots can be used as a base for building and sculpting names. We have thus identified and used some Arabic roots euphonic to a French ear, evoking words like woman, fenininity, prevention or well-being. In creating a name for a contraceptive, the name created is evocative of positive meanings for an Arabic speaking woman or a doctor, and euphonic to the French.

The QUENSIS team is composed of high level linguists and consultants who master numerous languages–both dead and living languages, Western or Eastern: Latin, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, but also: Russian, Serbo-Croat, Japanese, Hindi, Sanskrit, Classical Arabic, and numerous Arabic dialects.

Thanks to this human excellence and a breakthrough technology integrating almost limitless lexical databases, QUENSIS is capable of creating brand and drug names for any country or collection of markets in the world. Regardless of the languages explored or the euphonies to be tested, only Quensis has the expert consulting and technological leadership capable of clearing such names that appeal in ever-diverse markets. 

Créer un nom de médicament franco-arabe est un challenge linguistique car la langue arabe fonctionne différemment.

Certains sons existent en arabe, et pas dans notre système phonologique. L’arabe compte par exemple 2 sons [d], représentés par 2 lettres D, 2 sons et 2 lettres [t] et 2 sons et 2 lettres [s]… A contrario, certains sons et lettres existent dans l’alphabet latin, pas dans l’alphabet de l’arabe classique : le G, le V et le P.

En arabe, les mots sont formés à partir de racines trilitères, parfois quadrilitères, le plus souvent formées de consonnes. Ces « matrices » constituent le squelette du nom ; des processus de suffixation mais surtout de préfixation et d’infixation (ajout de lettres à l’intérieur) permettent de créer, par « dérivation », la diversité des mots attachés à un concept donné. 

Par exemple, la racine f-t-H sera celle des notions d’ « ouverture » et de « victoire ». Sans dérivation fataHa signifie « ouvrir ». Une première dérivation, consistant à doubler la consonne centrale – fattaHa – créera le sens d’« épanouir » (fleur) ou de « stimuler » (l’appétit). Une deuxième dérivation – infixation d’un â ([a] long) après la première consonner –, fâtaHa, donnera le sens de « s’ouvrir à quelqu’un ». La dérivation tafattaHa (préfixation de ta- et doublement de la consonne centrale) donnera le sens de « s’épanouir », « s’éveiller ». infataHa – préfixation de in- – donnera, dans le domaine technique, le sens de « se déboucher ».

L’expérience de nos récentes créations pour les pays arabophones nous a montré que, en vertu du fonctionnement linguistique évoqué ci-dessus, de nombreuses racines arabes pouvaient servir de socle pour des créations de noms. C’est ainsi que pour un contraceptif féminin, nous avons récemment identifié des racines arabes, euphoniques pour une oreille française, évoquant la femme, la féminité, la prévention ou encore le bien-être. Et pu créer des noms euphoniques pour les français, et suggestifs pour les femmes ou médecins arabes.

L’équipe de QUENSIS est composée de linguistes et de consultants de haut niveau maîtrisant de nombreuses langues mortes et vivantes, occidentales et orientales : français, anglais, allemand, espagnol, italien, mais aussi, russe, serbo-croate, japonais, hindou, latin, sanskrit, arabe classique et nombreux dialectes arabes.

Grâce à cette excellence humaine et une technologie innovante qui s’appuie sur des bases lexicales quasiment illimitées, QUENSIS est capable de créer des noms de marques et de médicaments pour n’importe quel pays et public au monde.  Quelle que soit la langue ou la culture…

GASTROWELL: An anti-diarrheal and an anti-inflammatory, two versions of the same OTC product. The name had to be simple and easily memorable for both doctors and patients. 

With Zanextra and GastroWell, Quensis fulfills the objective of creating simple, memorable names focused on product or client benefits. Thanks to  innovative technology, Quensis was able to screen names in real time while creating them, against our TM databases and our Drug Name databases.

GASTROWELL : Un anti-diarrhéique et un anti-inflammatoire, deux versions du même produit de conseil. Deux mots d’ordre pour la création du nom: simplicité et appropriation facile pour les médecins mais aussi pour les patients.

Avec Zanextra et GastroWell, Quensis réussit le pari de noms simples, mémorisables, centrés sur le bénéfice-produit ou le bénéfice-consommateur. Grâce à sa technologie innovante, Quensis a permis de vérifier leur disponibilité en temps réel par rapport aux bases de marques (INPI) et de médicaments (Afssaps).

On May 12 and 13, Quensis was invited to speak at a seminar on marks and reputation, along with the French IP office, in cooperation with the Chinese IP office, SAIC. Delphine Parlier spoke to Chinese officials and industrial magnates on how Chinese corporations can best select ideal brand names that fit the global market’s cultural and legal requirements. To find out more, contact delphine.parlier@quensis.com

Initially, the Internet suffered from an absence of international legal standards for resolving these disputes. Nearly 10 years ago, WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organization) published a report containing recommendations which led to the establishment of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) by ICANN on January 1, 1999.

Today, a company can obtain the cancellation or transfer of a domain name registered by a third party if it can prove:
− that the domain name is identical or confusingly similar to one of its trademarks;
− that the owner of the domain name has no rights or legitimate interests in the name;
− and/or that the third party is using it in bad faith. In France, WIPO sentenced an individual to retrocede frieskies.fr, natexisinterepargne.fr and more recently
laydernier.fr, from the name of a bank belonging to the French Crédit du Nord Group.

On the other hand,WIPO dismissed pop singer Sting’s request to recover sting.com. The reasons included that the rights holder was legally known by that name, that it is a common English word and that it is not necessarily an
exclusive mark.

To read more about this subject: 
http://www.wipo.int/aboutip/fr/studies/publications/domain_names.htm