Skunk2 Racing History - Part 2

How Skunk2 Got Its Name ...(Part 2)

So Group-A contacted Lockheed and told them that they would abandon the use of the "Skunkworks" name, however because Group-A already stockpiled a significant amount of inventory, they would need 12 months to sell the inventory and transition to the use of a new name. In actuality Group-A figured that it would take 6 months at the earliest and 9 months at the latest to sell all of the "Skunkworks" inventory. Unfortunately Lockheed thought differently and would only give Group-A 30 days to transition to the new name. Group-A responded that it would be impossible to transition in that short period of time without suffering significant financial loss. Group-A told Lockheed that they could agree to give them sufficient time to transition to a new name, in which case either party would not need to spend anymore money on legal fees; or they could insist on 30 days in which case Group-A was prepared to defend against a lawsuit long enough to transition to a new name at which time it would abandon the "Skunkworks" name anyways (even though Group-A knew it would cost a significant amount of money to defend a lawsuit against Lockheed, the legal costs would amount to significantly less than if it had to destroy remaining inventory). In essence Group-A told Lockheed that they could grant them the time for free, or Group-A would buy the time at significant costs to both parties, while also putting their trademark at risk at being made generic. Unfortunately Lockheed decided to take a strong posture by not compromising. A lawsuit was filed and month of back and forth lawyer letter writing ensued. They tried various tactics "threats" to make Group-A concede, but Group-A did not. Finally, they tried to schedule a court hearing/action on a date when they knew Group-A's attorney would be out of the country on business (even though they were given sufficient advanced notice and had agreed not to schedule any sort of action during that time). As a result Group-A's attorneys threatened to file for sanctions against Lockheed for their actions. That's when Lockheed's did a complete turnaround, abandoned the posturing, and reached an agreement within a week.

With the lawsuit behind them, Group-A had to choose a new name. At that time there was already a significant amount of brand equity built in the "Skunkworks Racing Project" name. Many enthusiasts were calling us "Skunk" for short, so Group-A decided that it would only make sense to keep using a name with "Skunk" in it. The reason why Group-A did not just use the name "Skunk" is because the name "Skunk" is already generic by nature. Taking a cue from the Japanese Option2 magazine and ESPN2, Group-A decided to change the name to "SKUNK2". The "2" would signify the next evolution of the "Skunk" brand. Furthermore, because there is no such word as a "Skunk2", it made the trademark easily defendable.

Today the "Skunk2" name is a registered trademark in the USA and several other key countries throughout the world.