Domain name registrations suggested ISIS considered several new names before settling on Softcard.
If you watch the news lately, you think of ISIS as a terrorist group. That’s unfortunate for the global mobile payments service ISIS.
So ISIS (the payments company) decided over the summer that it needed to rebrand.
In August I noticed a number of payment related domain names were registered at Mark Monitor, such as willowmobilewallet.com, PaywithWillow.com and Tapwithzoma.com.
As I started investigating who was behind the registrations, it turned out that Jamie Zoch over at DotWeekly was one step ahead of me.
On August 3, he wrote about how he was putting his money on ISIS rebranding as Softcard.
Apparently ISIS wasn’t so sure about the brand, though. That’s why it started registering domains for alternative brands including Zoma and Willow.
Its registrations were pretty extensive, including domains for potential mishaps in the future, e.g. zomaclassaction.com and willowsucks.com.
This goes to show that a lot of thought goes into branding. In this case, ISIS seriously considered several brands and registered related domain names while doing its final due diligence and selection.
In the end, ISIS chose Softcard. Perhaps it shied away from Zoma because, as a short word, it could be an acronym for another group in the future. Softcard seems like a safe (but unmemorable) bet to me.
Of course, there’s this little problem: Softcard.com is owned by a payments company. So the group settled on GoSoftcard.com.
michael berkens says
Hum
Word Mark SOFTCARD
Goods and Services IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Computer application software for mobile phones, handheld computers and wireless devices for use in connection with payments, presentation of personal identification data, presentation of loyalty and gift card credentials, and delivery and redemption of coupons, rebates, discounts, rewards and special offers
IC 035. US 100 101 102. G & S: Promoting the goods and services of others by means of coupons, rebates, discounts, special offers, loyalty programs, incentives, rewards and advertisements via wireless network, mobile telecommunications, global computer network; promoting the goods and services of others by providing a website featuring coupons, rebates, discounts, product reviews, links to the retail websites of others, loyalty programs, incentives and rewards; promoting the goods and services of others by means of display advertising
IC 036. US 100 101 102. G & S: Providing mobile commerce services via wireless network, telecommunications, global computer network; providing financial services via wireless network, mobile telecommunications, global computer network, namely payment systems; financial transaction services, namely, providing secure commercial and consumer transaction and payment options
Standard Characters Claimed
Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
Serial Number 86356067
Filing Date August 4, 2014
Current Basis 1B
Original Filing Basis 1B
Owner (APPLICANT) JVL Ventures, LLC LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY DELAWARE 230 Park Avenue, 27th Floor New York NEW YORK 10169
Attorney of Record David J. Byer
Type of Mark TRADEMARK. SERVICE MARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE
Andrew Allemann says
Filed a couple days after the domain registrations…
Owen Frager says
that’s not a little problem