Thinking to rename Ebiten to a new name due to the trademark issue

[hajimehoshi]

Hi all, this is not an urgent issue but I'm thinking to rename Ebiten to something due to trademarks in Japan. Ebiten (Ebten) is already registered by a company in Japan.

There are some candidates:

• Tendon (Tempura and rice bowl)
• Oden (Japanese one-pot dishes) (EDIT: Apparently this was already registered by oden.io)
• Shrimp
• Nebiten (небитен: being unimportant in Macedonian?)
• Ebeaten

We have not decided anything. Perhaps, we might decide to change nothing (and ignore the trademark issue).

I'd like to hear your opinions. Thanks,

EDIT: Probably nothing changes within 4 or 5 years. This is a very long-span issue.

[griffithsh]

Tendon has an unfortunate (or maybe it's fortunate?) overloading in English.

https://www.google.com/search?q=define+tendon

tendon
/ˈtɛndən/
noun
a flexible but inelastic cord of strong fibrous collagen tissue attaching a muscle to a bone.
the hamstring of a quadruped.

[hajimehoshi]

Yeah, that's a coincidence, but I think this is not bad.

[dbriemann]

For what it's worth, my 5 cent. I would avoid overloaded names if possible, at least overloading with the English language.
If you do something like that it should be especially funny or clever.

In this case the English meaning of tendon does not seem negative or positive but it just adds confusion. People will probably not get why the library is named after a flexible but inelastic cord of strong fibrous collagen tissue attaching a muscle to a bone.

[eihigh]

This site might be useful. https://experience-japan.info/

I found tofu, udon, soba, natto, senbei, anpan, ...

[hajimehoshi]

Yeah, I'd like to use Japanese food names. Thanks!

[magnuswahlstrand]

Oden is how we spell the Norse god Odin. Might be why the name is taken 🤔

Shrimp is pretty cool 🦐🍤

[hajimehoshi]

Thank you! Yeah, I'd like to keep the theme of shrimps.

[loig]

If so, maybe finding a language in which the equivalent for shrimp sounds/looks cool to you? In french, for example, it is called "crevette".

[jmaister]

shrimpura - form shrimp tempura, so it will not collide with real food names in search engines

[dcoty]

If you want to keep with the crustacean theme, how about Botanebi? Or maybe Prawn, but i think that might be taken. I'll think of some more soon :)

[hajimehoshi]

Thank you! Botanebi sounds yummy!

[TheMightyGit]

Perhaps add something to it rather than totally change it? EbitenLib EbitenGo EbitenGame Ebiten+[something]

[hajimehoshi]

(An existing trademark) + alpha might be problematic, but sounds nice!

[gabstv]

I don't know how Japan's trademark laws work, but usually you could keep the same phonetics, but changing/adding/removing vowels or consonants?

[hajimehoshi]

It depends. For example, 'Ebitempura' might not be safe since this is the same meaning of 'Ebiten'. 'Ebitendon' might be safe since this is a little different meaning.

[timbear1]

I don't have any comments on the actual new name, but maybe favor something that is short-ish as it's going to be written a lot.

[hajimehoshi]

Yeah, I'll try to make it short!

[Nassim-Saboundji]

How about Ebi10 ? With 10 pronounced in english you keep the same pronunciation . Or you could change it to Ebi9 or another any number you want.

[hajimehoshi]

The same pronunciation as an existing trademark cannot be registered in Japan. Ebi11 or Ebi9 sounds unique :)

[harbdog]

How about EbiEbi? So nice you can name it twice :)

[hajimehoshi]

Not bad. I've confirmed EbiEbi is not registered.

[ghtalpo]

How about libebi? Looks more game library. :)

[hajimehoshi]

Thank you for the suggestion!

[mrwormhole]

Pretty dumb idea but how about netibe? The reverse of existing name.

There is also popular name called "Nevide" which means exciting, cheerful and great news in arabic. Reverse of it would be "ediven" which is kinda close to ebiten but softer to pronounce. Kinda reminds me aiven kafka provider managed service based in Finland lol

[hajimehoshi]

Reversing the spelling sounds an interesting idea, thanks!

[hajimehoshi]

Ebitenorg (just to keep the domain ebiten.org)

[alejandro-a]

What about Teriyaki or Ebiyaki?

[hajimehoshi]

Thanks! Teriyaki is interesting. Unfortunately there is no word Ebiyaki.

[shaneutt]

I think Oden is great because it is short and simple. I see that the .io domain is taken so maybe you're counting that one out of the running but so far that's my favorite.

[hajimehoshi]

Though Oden is a fancy name, this is already registered (maybe as a software). I'll double-check.

[hajimehoshi]

https://branddb.wipo.int/branddb/en/showData.jsp?ID=USTM.86577190

[eihigh]

How about gamite (gay-my-t, ゲーマイト in Japanese) ? In this word, -ite means "rough stone" with great potential. And it's a word that doesn't even exist in the world yet!

[hajimehoshi]

Thanks! I have confirmed this is not used or registered anywhere. One concern is that this doesn't keep the original Ebiten meaning...

[hajimehoshi]

Finally I have decided to use a new name "Ebitengine" (pronounced as Ebi-Ten-Jin).

Thank you for your nice suggestions. Every suggestion was actually really nice, and I'd like to express my thanks to all of you.

[mrwormhole]

engine??, are you guys sure :D people will say it like a bit engine :D

[hajimehoshi]

Yes, it's an engine!

[mrwormhole]

ok then there are 2 pronunciations "a bit engine" (I like this one) and "ebi ten jin", it is much like "godot" being "go dough" and "go dot" (I still use this one) :D