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Soon after John S. Pemberton prepared the first bottle of Coca-Cola syrup in 1886, his friend and bookkeeper, F. M. Robinson, chose an alliterative name. He wrote the words in the now familiar flowing script, and in 1893, "Coca-Cola" was registered officially in the U.S-Patent and Trademark Office.
But people started to ask for "Coke" and, in 1941, the trademark "Coke" received equal prominence in advertising with "Coca-Cola", and in 1945, "Coke" was registered as a trademark.
The shape design of the contour bottle for Coca-Cola is also a U.S. registered trademark, one of the few package designs to receive this distinction. The bottle was designed in 1915 by Alexander Samuelson, an employee of the Root glass Company of Indiana. Legends suggest that the bottle was shaped deliberately to resemble the fashionable hobble skirt.
The extensions of the Coca-Cola name began in 1982 with the introduction of Diet Coke (also called Coca-Cola Light in some countries). Diet Coke quickly became the number one selling low-calorie soft-drink in the world. In 1983, caffeine-free versions of Coke and Diet Coke were introduced. And in 1985, Cherry Coke made its appearance.
The name "Fanta" was first registered as a trademark in Germany in 1941, when it was used for a few years for a soft-drink created from the available materials and flavours. The name was then revived in 1955 in Naples, Italy, when it was used for the Fanta orange drink we know today. Fanta is now the number one orange soft drink in the world.
The idea for the name of the lemon-lime soft-drink, Sprite, came from early advertising. During the 1940's, an elf with silver hair and a big smile, was used in advertising for Coca-Cola. This character, known affectionately as the "Sprit Boy", urged consumers to buy more of the product. In the late 1950's, the Company developed a citrus-flavoured drink. The short, sharp and memorable sound of Sprite made it an ideal name for the new product. Since another company had been using the name since 1955, the Company had to purchase and register "Sprite" as its property. In 1961, Sprite made its U.S. debut.
A computer search yieled a brand name for the Company's first low-calorie beverage in 1963. Computers were programmed to sort out all Three- and four-letter words in English. "TaB" was selected from some 250 000 words.
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