The Big Word Use in Commerce?


Over at The Big Word Project, two students are “exploring what different words mean to different people.” In their words:

The Big Word Project has been set up by Paddy Donnelly and Lee Munroe, two Masters students from Northern Ireland, who are exploring what different words mean to different people. The project allows you to purchase a word from our list to represent your site. Your site will then represent this word in our list and when people click on it, they will be taken to your site. The project is aimed at changing definitions and creating a new tapestry of words, meaning altogether different things.

We’re selling words for $1 per letter

For example, you may buy the word ‘Donkey’ for $6 and it will link to your site dedicated to donkeys. The word ‘Donkey’ will then be the gateway to your site and the definition will be changed. No longer will the word Donkey mean ‘a woodworking apparatus consisting of a clamping frame and saw, used for cutting marquetry veneers’, instead it will now be represented visually by ‘Chris’s Donkey Site’.

Discussion question: Could Paddy and Lee be engaged in trademark infringement? Dilution? Does your answer depend on whether The Big Word Project is characterized as a dictionary or as a search engine?


Why don’t we (ths Institute) purchase some prominent trademarks and find out.