However it is his comments to the British Patent Office, when registering Kodak as a trademark, that are most illuminating:

"This is not a foreign name or word; it was constructed by me to serve a definite purpose. It has the following merits as a trade-mark word: first it is short; second, it is not capable of mispronunciation; third, it does not resemble anything in the art and cannot be associated with anything in the art".

Trademark protection is just as important today as it was in George Eastman's time, perhaps more so. And after more than 100 years his words still spell out some of the fundamental principles for anyone wanting to register a brand name as a trademark.