Dead-simple blogging and content distribution service Posterous has long used the URL post.ly as a custom branded Web address for blog posts hosted on its platform. Today, the startup is announcing that it has turned Post.ly into a destination site of its own, more specifically making it the latest media sharing service for Twitter.

Staying true to its well-earned reputation of keeping its services as simple as they are functional, Posterous has turned Post.ly into something I can see myself using a lot going forward.

If you're a Posterous user and logged on, Post.ly will recognize you as such, or you can simply sign in with your username and password. You can then use the tool to send out a tweet to your Twitter account (which you can link up using the OAuth protocol) and add multiple media files like photos, videos, music, documents and more to your message.

If 140 characters doesn't quite cut it for you, there's an option to include an unlimited amount of extra text. Evidently, whatever you choose to publish will end up on on your Posterous blog and be distributed to your Twitter stream using Posterous' auto-post technology.

If you're not a Posterous user yet, using Post.ly will work in the same fashion as sending an e-mail to post@posterous.com for the first time: it will automatically set up a custom blog for you with your Twitter username, and you can later dive into the settings to configure the title, theme, etc. Couldn't be easier.

Posterous is introducing this new feature/service because it hopes Post.ly will introduce more people to their core service and entice them to discover more about what it's capable of. As a Posterous user myself, I think it is also terribly useful for existing users, mainly because for whatever reason you currently can't upload files to Posterous when you're publishing a new blog post from the Web.

Choosing a distinctive name is important from a business perspective, but it is also important if you want trademark law to protect your business name. A business name is potentially a trademark protected by the law, but this protection depends on the type of name you choose.

As a general matter, the more unique or distinctive the name is, the greater trademark protection it receives. Fanciful marks (made-up words like "Kodak"), arbitrary marks (existing words used in a way unrelated to their normal meaning, like "Apple" for computers), and suggestive marks (those that hint at a quality or aspect of the product or service, like "Netscape") receive the highest level of protection. You can register these kinds of trademarks immediately, without any evidence of "secondary meaning" -- i.e., proof that, through your use of the name in commerce, the public has come to identify it specifically with your good or service. Similarly, in the event of a lawsuit, you would not need to produce evidence of secondary meaning in order to make out your case.

In contrast, a merely descriptive name can only receive full trademark protection after it acquires secondary meaning. Some examples include names that describe the product or service directly, such as Speedy Rental Car, or one that merely uses a person's name, such as Smith Computers or Jane's Collectibles. Terms that describe the geographic location of a good or service, like the New York Times, also are considered descriptive, and they can be protected as trademarks only upon proof that through use they have acquired secondary meaning. If you choose a merely descriptive name for your citizen media site or blog, you would not be able to register it at first, and you would not be able to successfully sue someone for using a confusingly similar trademark. You might be able to register it and/or bring a successful lawsuit at a later date, however, assuming that Internet users at some point come to identify your business name specifically with your work (i.e., it acquires secondary meaning).

Lastly, a generic name can never receive trademark protection. A generic name is identical to the product or service to which it attaches. For instance, calling a business that hosted email accounts "email" would be a generic name. Keep in mind that a term can be a generic name for one product or service, but a valid trademark for another. For instance, "Apple" is a generic name for selling apples, but a valid trademark for computers, and "Bicycle" is a generic name for selling bicycles, but a valid trademark for playing cards. Some geographical terms like "swiss cheese" and "French fries" are also generic because they are synonymous with the item itself. However, this does not mean that all geographical names are generic.

Choosing a business name presents a special problem for a community journalism site or blogger with a regional focus, where using a geographical or other descriptive term makes intuitive sense. After some thought, you may decide that the appropriate descriptive name is more important to you than strong trademark protection. Or, you may come up with a creative way of using a geographical term in a distinctive way (e.g., h2otown). Be aware also that your descriptive name may obtain secondary meaning should your site prove an influential and often-visited source of information -- think, for instance about the New York Times. So, keep in mind that you may start out with a business name that enjoys little protection under trademark law, but the amount of protection may grow over time.

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