Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in

Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by nickkokonas on Thursday March 04, 2021 @11:14AM (#26344240)

Hi -- I'm the co-owner of Alinea... the restaurant and group.

While they are in different industries, I owned a derivatives trading group for years, run a tech startup (Tock), and am getting a bunch of emails from folks thinking I started this or am affiliated in some way.

So... while I dislike conflict, I really don't like be associated with something I have no control over. There will be an incoming email shortly.

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by ForrestN on Thursday March 04, 2021 @07:07PM (#26350404)

Amazing to read your answer! When I lived in Chicago I Was lucky enough to eat there multiple times, and it felt a bit like something sacred was being trod on. Will never forget eating "birthday cake" directly off the table, scattered in a little cosmos. Thank you for everything you've done.

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by WORMS_EAT_WORMS on Thursday March 04, 2021 @12:50PM (#26345546)

Amazing. FWIW to the Alinea (YC W21) folks, I felt your name, branding/colors, and logo felt completely off and strange. Good time to change it up?

Edit: And fonts. Modern edgy logo font and the website complimentary font is a bit... Crayola. Not dogging on you all, I'm sure having this be a focus of your launch isn't fun for all your hard work. It's a really neat idea.

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by atlasunshrugged on Thursday March 04, 2021 @01:31PM (#26346204)

Ditto on using this opportunity for a design and brand change, the purple is overwhelming and even the name for a mass market brand is tough IMO. Do you pronounce it Ah-lean-ah? A-lin-euh? A-lien-ah? Not obvious and if you're thinking about leaning on WOM its a tough word because people might hear it and google 'alina' and miss you entirely

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by bflies on Thursday March 04, 2021 @11:24AM (#26344379)

I was about to post something like, haha, the founders didn't do their homework but after checking if there's any brand registered, there isn't. So what do you mean by, there will be an incoming mail shortly? Will you ask them to change their name and if yes, on which basis?

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by moneywoes on Thursday March 04, 2021 @11:21AM (#26344345)

Very interesting background, what made you move from finance to restaurants to tech?

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by joezydeco on Thursday March 04, 2021 @12:19PM (#26345126)

Nick wrote an epic piece about what motivated his company to create what eventually became Tock:

https://web.archive.org/web/20190407042116/https://www.aline...

(good to see you here, Nick. big fan!)

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by jkkramer on Thursday March 04, 2021 @12:24PM (#26345191)

Great interview with Nick about this and other topics:

https://www.joincolossus.com/episodes/20135760/kokonas-know-...

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by cj on Thursday March 04, 2021 @12:58PM (#26345672)

> There will be an incoming email shortly

To the founders: ignore their email and consult your lawyer.

Trademark infringement generally requires an element of consumer brand confusion.

There is no way USPTO will see a restaurant and a stock trading app as likely to cause consumer confusion, as they are in completely different industries with absolutely no overlap. Sharing the same name doesn’t matter much given that fact.

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by Matticus_Rex on Thursday March 04, 2021 @04:44PM (#26348826)

Likelihood of confusion is not an immensely high bar for nationally/internationally-known brands (or ones that wish to be nationally-known )in the age of the Internet. Your restaurant gets a string of negative BBB reviews that feature prominently on Google that were actually aimed at someone's product? That's actual harm you can point to. If Alinea were just a local restaurant instead of an internationally-known institution, it'd be one thing, but If I were the YC company I'd take the opportunity to rebrand.

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by patentatt on Thursday March 04, 2021 @01:08PM (#26345862)

Observation: several posters in this very thread have expressed confusion.

Also, it's always bad form to give out legal advice on the internet.

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by cj on Thursday March 04, 2021 @04:01PM (#26348266)

> several posters in this very thread have expressed confusion

Consumer confusion within a specific industry. Like a food company using their name.

If this were a food delivery startup, there would be an issue. Since it's an stock trading app, very few trademark attorneys would see an issue with it.

And of course, consult your attorney, as mentioned in the original comment.

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by pvg on Thursday March 04, 2021 @01:12PM (#26345917)

ignore their email and consult your lawyer

You're making the assumption the email is a legal threat of some sort rather than an attempt to resolve the issue at hand.

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by hurricanesugar on Thursday March 04, 2021 @10:20AM (#26343479)

No, not organizationally related to the restaurant. https://www.thealineagroup.com/companies/alinea

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by superdimwit on Thursday March 04, 2021 @11:30AM (#26344466)

It's also the name of a very popular french furniture chain

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by maldini94 on Thursday March 04, 2021 @03:45PM (#26348028)

Also the biggest provider of educational aid for elementary school in Denmark

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by anamlakhani_ on Thursday March 04, 2021 @10:14AM (#26343384)

Yes, Alinea means a new way of doing something,for us, it's a new way of investing!

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by psychometry on Thursday March 04, 2021 @10:42AM (#26343788)

Why on earth would you name a fintech company after a world-famous restaurant? Bonkers...

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by regulation_d on Thursday March 04, 2021 @11:03AM (#26344073)

To those who have not seen the Grant Achatz profile in the Netflix series Chef’s Table (S02E01), I highly recommend it. One of my favorite episodes in the whole series. Excellent cinematography and storytelling. Obvious not the only reason Alinea is world famous, but definitely gave it a ton of exposure.

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by ska on Thursday March 04, 2021 @11:05AM (#26344106)

Possibly both have the same source (Latin) not a direct reference ?

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by yanslookup on Thursday March 04, 2021 @11:09AM (#26344161)

They are in... completely different industries?

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by UncleMeat on Thursday March 04, 2021 @12:38PM (#26345369)

Sort of. The Alinea folks also started Tock, which is a tech startup.

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by loceng on Thursday March 04, 2021 @11:08AM (#26344151)

I don't understand the downvotes you're getting or the negativity in the comments. I've never heard of Alinea - the restaurant before - and it's really strange that people are being anal about someone else using the name for a completely different industry - it won't be confusing to anyone.

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by icedchai on Thursday March 04, 2021 @02:44PM (#26347189)

Here's a simple test I always use when figuring out if a name is good and not confusing: Google it. If you search for "Alinea", what do you get?

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by kevsim on Thursday March 04, 2021 @03:05PM (#26347482)

Does that really work though? What about mega companies with very common word names? Segment, Zoom, Stripe, etc.

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by tptacek on Thursday March 04, 2021 @03:12PM (#26347592)

It would be a bad idea to name your next tech company "Stripe" (or your next restaurant, for that matter; ew.)

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by kevsim on Thursday March 04, 2021 @03:55PM (#26348161)

Ha! I guess my point was that when those companies started up, searching for those terms was bound to result in some businesses popping up, though I'm sure they made the call that "hey, they're not in the payments/analytics/whatever space, so no worries"

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by adam on Thursday March 04, 2021 @12:50PM (#26345540)

You might also take a look at your logo when you're thinking about your brand. It looks very similar to Aether Apparel: https://www.aetherapparel.com

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Re:Launch HN: Alinea (YC W21) – Invest in stocks you believe in by spoonjim on Thursday March 04, 2021 @11:04AM (#26344078)

So you deliberately gave your startup the same name as one of the most famous companies in another industry?

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