Is where a better way of spotting whether a mark that looks like an invented word might mean something in another language?

Ebay, being transliterated into Russian, turns into another 4-letter word usually being ****-ed and <BEEP>-ed out for younger audience - I guess you guys and gals know the word.

A while ago I spotted a discussion on a trademark professionals mailing list I'm subscribed to. The subject was of special interest to me, so I took time to respond - guess it might be of interest to visitors of Patents from RU site as well.

So, my colleague Barbara E Cookson asked:

Apart from the direct question to the client, doing a web search and
plodding through all the language options in Google's Language tools

Does anyone have a better way of spotting whether a mark that looks like an
invented word might mean something in another language. Ideas also welcome
on whether anything other than a focus group or your own mischievous mind
will reveal unpleasant connotations in other cultures?

My answer was:

That's quite an tricky issue indeed. For instanse, Ebay, being transliterated into Russian, turns into another 4-letter word usually being ****-ed and <BEEP>-ed out for younger audience - I guess you guys and gals know the word.

Anyways, myself, I'd ask professional translators.
For instance, I'm currently subscribed to LANTRA-L mailing list.

Quoting the list's intro (http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7110/lantra.htm):

--
LANTRA-L is a forum for all aspects of translation and interpretation of natural languages. Including,
but not restricted to, computer aids for translation and interpretation.
--

To subscribe, send the message SUB LANTRA-L Your Name to listserv@segate.sunet.se

To make sorting through LANTRA-L mail easier, a number of predefinied
headers are used, e.g.

TERM: All terminology, grammar, linguistics, etc. questions
Ex.: TERM FR>EN Electricity
Ex.: TERM EN>EN Legalese

CHAT: Chitchat.
Ex.: CHAT Geese, cats and tofu recipes

So, getting back to Barbara's question - there is a very useful header in
use at LANTRA-L:

QUERY: Questions on conferences, dictionaries, URLs, reference material, professional training, etc.
Ex.: QUERY Learning to be a translator
Ex.: QUERY looking for URL or ref on spiders

So, being subscribed to the list, you could post your query, like this:

QUERY: does this invented word mean something in another language?

and I'm positive you'll get _qualified_ response since LANTRA-L is one
of the most popular translators' forum on the web.

Good luck in inventing truly unobtrusive invented words.

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