How much is your firm's name worth? All of a sudden it is worth a lot less.

When this firm was founded in 2007, Kony was a pretty good choice of name. The domain was available, and that is a pretty key element in the choice of names for any company.

"Kony was founded in 2007 by successful entrepreneur Raj Koneru, who recognized that mobile devices and their capabilities would continue to grow exponentially and be a key driver in the next customer interaction revolution. Kony’s mission is to develop the technologies and applications that facilitate and accelerate customer engagement over any mobile operating system, device and channel."

Source: http://kony.com/about-us

Up until March 5, 2012 this firm's name; Kony Solutions, was still fine, but now Kony brings up a whole raft of negative connotations.

And that is the first thing that I thought of when I saw an email about a webinar presented by Kony and Gartner. I saw "Kony" as the sender and thought of Joseph Kony of the Lord's Resistance Army and the Kony 2012/Stop Kony campaign by Innocent Children, Inc.

Will Kony, the mobile device firm, have to change its name? I think that probability depends on how long Joseph Kony remains at large and what he does. But in this increasingly international world it does raise the issue that a name that seems safe and innocuous in one country can be a very risky branding proposition in another. You just hope that your brand name does not match an accused war criminal.