Trademark Law: Death by genericide

1. Generically Yours
March 5th, 2012 · Robert Scott Lawrence
Do you know what genericide is? It’s
when a once lofty brand name — a
market leader — becomes so
comfortable on the tongues of
consumers that they start using it as
a noun, and the mark itself loses its
legal power to define the brand. The
public appropriates the name for itself, and competitors start using the
name as if it were a found object rather than a creation from the mind of
man. Sounds a bit silly, doesn’t it? But for those of you who are not initiates
into the mysteries of intellectual property law, here’s a sampling
of trademarks which ruled the market in their heyday and are now no more.
Aspirin— originally a trademark of Bayer AG for a type of salicylic acid
made from willow bark
Cellophane — originally a trademark of DuPont
Dry Ice — originally a trademark by Dry Ice Corporation of America
Escalator — originally a trademark of the Otis Elevator Company
Kerosene — originally trademarked by Abraham Gesner
Mimeograph — originally trademarked by Albert Dick
Thermos — originally a trademark of Thermos GmbH
Touch-Tone — originally a trademark of AT&T
Trampoline — originally trademarked by George Nisse
Videotape — originally a trademark of Ampex Corporation
Yo-Yo — originally a trademark of Duncan Yo-Yo Company
Zipper — originally a trademark of B.F. Goodrich
Are you shocked? Did you grow up using these words as common nouns,
thinking that Adam had called them out by name when he named the fish

2. and fowl and beasts of the field? Or did you — like virtually everyone else in
the world — merely take them at face value and never give them a passing
thought? Now that I’ve focused your attention, let me throw some other
words your way, and you tell me whether they are still trademarked or have
become part of the common lexicon:
Band-Aid
Bubble Wrap
Crock-Pot
Formica
Frisbee
Hula Hoop
Jacuzzi
Jeep
Ping Pong
Polaroid
Popsicle
Q-tips
Sharpie
Styrofoam
Vaseline
Velcro
Walkie-Talkie
Xerox
Can I tell you I jumped out of bed and swallowed two aspirin, zipped up my
zipper and grabbed a thermos of coffee before driving off in my jeep to
xerox a box of documents and fedex them to Chicago before the big hula
hoop party at the escalator company? Can I relax in my jacuzzi afterwards
with a big styrofoam cup of Coke without having to slap a big ® symbol on
everything?

3. What do you think?