UND's space-bound AgCam is now known as ISSAC, the university said Wednesday, two months after abandoning a naming dispute with a private company that also claimed the AgCam name.
ISSAC, pronounced like "Isaac Newton," is short for International Space Station Agriculture Camera.
In 2001, the university seemed to have the perfect name for the camera system that monitors crops from the space station using the near infrared wavelength. But UND never trademarked the name and Dakota Micro, based in Cayuga, N.D., filed for the trademark in 2003.
The company makes cameras for use in farming.
UND tried to contest the trademark infringement, but, after Dakota Micro complained that it had to fight against a taxpayer-owned institution, officials decided to just change the name.
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UND spokesman Peter Johnson said that, on the advice of legal staff, the university will trademark ISSAC after it begins using the name. He said staff had done research and found no one using ISSAC for a camera.
There is, however, something very similar and it's a space camera, too. The European Southern Observatory in Chile owns something called an Infrared Spectrometer and Array Camera.
Johnson noted that that's one "S" and two "As;" UND's camera is two "S" and one "A."
ISSAC, which is being repaired, will head back to the space station next April, the university said.
Reach Tran at (701) 780-1248; (800) 477-6572, ext. 248; or send e-mail to ttran@gfherald.com .
