How about "Good Mornay-ing?"

Leave it to budding restaurateurs in the East Bay to come up with a creative way to avoid trademark litigation.

According to her blog Local Lemons, Allison Arevalo, along with her business partner Erin Wade, made a good-faith effort to ensure that the name of their forthcoming Oakland restaurant, Little Mac, wouldn't be a problem to a certain other restaurant that goes by the name Mac.

It turns out the name was a problem, and so it's a good thing that they checked it out. As much as it was probably a pain to have to go back and re-brand the business after building up a local buzz over the past couple months, it could have been devastating to have to change the name after opening.

The lesson? Do your best to think of possible conflicts with a business or product name as early in development of said product or business as possible. The Little Mac folks ran the name by a lawyer who suggested they check in with McDonald's before opening the restaurant. By doing so, they avoided a potentially ugly legal dispute. Read more on developing a strong mark in Stephen Elias and Richard Stim's Trademark: Legal Care for your Business or Product Name (Nolo 2007).

BTW, I love the solution they came up with to their restaurant name problem: they held a contest. Whoever comes up with the best name gets mac and cheese for life. Yes!