I’ve been trying to find a replacement part for my bicycle’s Shimano Nexus 7 internal 7 speed hub. I’m overwhelmed with Nexus 7 tablet information. It’s easy enough to filter out stuff, but even then you’ll get hits for people using their Nexus 7 tablet while riding their bicycle.
In the internet age, companies are desperate to distinguish their products, so we’ve had an explosion of impossibly obscure combinations of letters in order to uniquely identify their brand. I’m talking to you, Japanese and Korean automobile manufacturers!
Any other distinctly different products with the same name. The long running dispute between Apple Records and Apple Computer is well known, but I doubt the two Steves thought much about being in the music business when they founded Apple.
A few years ago, I needed to buy a replacement mouse for a computer which, for whatever reason, only had a PS/2 port instead of a USB port to plug the mouse into.
The phone calls I made to stores to see if they sold a compatible mouse did not go well.
There is an Alzheimer’s drug called Exelon, and that’s also the name of a nuclear power plant in northern Illinois.
And the launch of Cialis was delayed by some months because some people whose surname is Cialis found out about this, and sued the drug company (unsuccessfully) to have it changed.
In company names rather than products, Lowe’s is a hardware retailer. Loews is a conglomerate with its hands in oil drilling, gas pipelines, and luxury hotels
I know I’ve run into a good example of this before, but it’s right on the tip of my brain and won’t quite fully form…
Heh, every USB mouse I’ve ever bought has included a PS/2 adapter. And wow, that must be a hell of an old computer. Good for you keeping going with it so long, people are in too much of a hurry to upgrade these days.
The people of the Greek island of Lesbos absolutely hate the fact that gay women are also, these days, referred to as lesbians (despite the fact that they get lots of tourist business because of it).
There was a news story a few years ago about the people of the island petitioning the Greek government to stop using the word in its, er, more modern sense in official documents, but I don’t think I have much chance of finding it via Google.
One unusual example: Hershey the chocolate company and Hershey the ice cream company are not the same business and never have been. The two companies just coincidentally happened to be founded in the same year (1894) by two different Hershey families (who were unrelated) and who lived only a few miles apart. The two companies have sued each other back and forth for decades.
