<a href="http://whatever.scalzi.com/2009/03/17/the-venereal-disease-channel-imaginatizes-greatastically/">On the Sci-Fi Channel's New Branding</a>

From John Scalzi:

Apparently one of the motivating factors to change the name from “scifi” to a phase-changing-vowel-filled homonym was to have a name that was trademarkable and extensible, and it seems no one else in the world actually uses the word “syfy” for anything. Well, except Poland, where the word is used to identify crusty, scabby sexually transmitted diseases, and no, this is not a joke. No one there is going to use the word to associate with their product, any more than someone here might try to market, say, Chlamydia™ brand adhesive bandages.