I first encountered Language Log through the roll on this blog. I confess that, even for a lawprof, I have an above-average interest in language questions. Language is, of course, central to law, both generally (e.g., interpretation methods for texts as varied as contracts and constitutions) and in the i.p. realm (e.g., distinctiveness and genericness in trademarks, or the merger doctrine in copyright law).
Benjamin Zimmer’s recent post on an advertising executive’s effort to coin a new term – “sisomo” – had me laughing out loud, repeatedly. The new term comes from taking the first two letters of the words sight, sound, and motion (which the exec believes to be the key elements to successful advertising today). I kept thinking, too, of the sight-sound-meaning test for determining how similar two trademarks are in the likelihood-of-confusion inquiry. So, I’ve coined my own term: sisome. I’m fairly sure I’ll be the only one to use it.