I'll have to change my name now North Kiteboarding is no more..

[Toby]

Was? You reserved it ?

[tautologies]

Duotone Ion Kiteboarding would be a bit of a problem.

LOL, but there is a flying dick with wings logo available now.

[Andres_Santacruz]

TKB sounds pretty good!

[gyro]

So I had a quick look** and its not just the domains earlier in the thread, there are trademarks too which is interesting.

There are actually quite a few for Duotone for Boards and More and perhaps associated companies

There are a few very recent word mark applications from March and April this year (ie broad protection for the word, not what the logo looks like) with descriptions that cover everything Boards and More do and much more besides.

https://www.trademarkia.com/ctm/tradema ... tn=duotone

There is also one with a figurative logo from 1999 that is more about snowboarding kit so perhaps Duotone is an old Boards and More brand being revived and made broader to cover more stuff?

https://www.trademarkia.com/ctm/tradema ... tn=duotone

Its difficult to link search results from the actual trademark databases but you can search also duotone here https://www.tmdn.org/tmview/welcome and sort by date

** when I say quick look, discovering this thread kept me awake last night. Have a lot of North kit and really hope the team, products and innovation continues irrespective of branding.

[tautologies]

** when I say quick look, discovering this thread kept me awake last night. Have a lot of North kit and really hope the team, products and innovation continues irrespective of branding.

I'm sure they will.

[purdyd]

Its difficult to link search results from the actual trademark databases but you can search also duotone here https://www.tmdn.org/tmview/welcome and sort by date

that is a pretty good search engine - if you advanced search by boards & more you find the graphic - interesting boards & more did trademark rebel neo dice etc.

duotone.jpg (82.95 KiB) Viewed 7026 times

and apparently there was a company called duotone that made record needles but that trademark has expired

[gyro]

I didn't look for logos - that is a good find.

The descriptions for their wordmark trademarks are so broad (kite+windsurf+SUP+wetsuits+apparel), that Duotone could be a replacement for Boards and More as the umbrella brand if they wanted, not just NKB.

I also wonder if the very broad bicycle products one by On Demand Gmbh a few days later is also related - meaning Duotone really covers everything they do and more?

[iriejohn]

... interesting boards & more did trademark rebel neo dice etc.

If those trademarks stand then North would be really pissed off!

[dlangpap]

Although people are right in saying it's the quality, innovation, design, etc. that matter, the brand name also carries a lot of weight. In this case, North has been one of the market leaders in the kitesurfing business for a while now and North sails is practically the most famous sail brand in the world. I'm sure that if North Sails has chosen to enter the kitesurfing market on their own, they'll make sure to have great products and aim to be the market leader. Having said that, it's not that easy to develop everything from scratch so maybe they'll buy an existing manufacturer to incorporate know-how and go from there. In any case, if they do and can't use the NKB logo, hopefully they'll use the North Sails one.

On the other hand, Boards and More would make a huge mistake using Duotone as a brand replacement for North. Just from the sound of it and the reactions here, it would seem it's a loser. Why not just use ION? It already has a high quality perception and sounds cool: ION Kiteboarding. Of course, a completely new brand name may also work if thought out properly. Suggestions? What about using their flagship kite model as a brand: REBEL kites...

Having said that, which ones do you think are the coolest brand names for kitesurfing?

I think Cabrinha is good, it sounds cool and the logo is excellent. Liquid Force is a good name too and I guess Ozone is not bad. SLingshot I thought at some point had the coolest looking kites colorwise (in the first half of the 2000s the Fuels were very good looking), and I guess they have tried to maintain the importance of color design on their kites.

[effisk]

So truekiteboarding.com has been registered by Boards and More for a few years now. Sounds much better than duotone imho.