Acme





Acme is the name most frequently used in jurisprudence to indicate a
fictional company or corporation (or generically a subject with juridical
personality), in order to simulate a concrete case of application or
interpretation of the law. Usually, in English-speaking common law the name
John Doe is similarly used for a fictional subject with physical personality
(Romans used Aulus Agerius and Numerius Negidius, or the triad Titius,
Caius, Sempronius).

The origins of the term are obscure, but if not the Latin word acme meaning
high point or best, it would probably be derived from an acronym;
ordinarily, law students are prolifically capable of compiling endless lists
of possible explanations. The most common is "American corporation
manufacturing everything".

Acme is also:

   * the fictional Acme Corporation in the Road Runner cartoons.

   * Acme Markets, a real grocery store chain on the east coast owned by
     Albertson's. Founded in 1891 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Samuel
     Robinson and Robert Crawford, 'Robinson and Crawford' merged with four
     other firms in 1917 to become the largest grocer in the world, and in
     1931 adopted the name Acme.

   * the fictional ACME Detective Agency in the Carmen Sandiego series.