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Genericized trademark

Genericized trademarkstrademarks usedmean more thanoriginal product.

Tablecontents
1 Legal Protection
2 Former trademarks now used generically
3 Current trademarks thatoften used generically
4 See also
5 External links

Legal Protection

Trademarks, unlike other formsintellectual property such as copyrightspatents, must be actively useddefended. A copyright or patent holder may simply "sit on" his creationprevent its use, buttrademark owner claimingeven registeringtrademark that failsmake active useit, or failsdefendagainst infringement may loseexclusive rightuse it. Further, ifcourt rules thatformerly trademarked term has become so successfulgaining mind sharebecomes "generic" through common use (and soaverage consumer doesn't realizeistrademark),may also be ruled invalid. A trademark may also become generic ifowner oftrademark registration failscomply withregistration requirements.

The genericization oftrademark sometimes results becausetrademark isnamesomething protected by other intellectual property rights, especially patents. Sincepatent gives an inventorexclusive rightmanufactureproduct forperiodtime, consumers will only know that product byinventor's trademark forduration ofpatent. Whenpatent expires,inventor's competitors begin producing their own versions, but usinginventor's trademarkname their product because this isname by whichgeneral public identifies such items. (Thisalsorationalenot protectinggeneric trademark, because that would effectively allowinventorextend patent protection indefinitely.) One patent that lost its trademark statusthis wayThomas Edison's mimeograph.

Trademark owners should never usetrademark asverb or noun, implyingwordgeneric. Likewise, usingtrademark asplural or possessive (i.e.noun) will implytrademarkgeneric. Iftrademarkassociated withpatent,patent holder may needemphasizedescriptive term forproduct thatdistinguished fromtrademark asbrand name.

Trademark owners whose trademarkcommonly used by consumers may havetake special proactive measures. Xerox took out ads advising consumers"photocopy" instead"Xeroxing" documents. Inless drastic but more common practice, many owners follow their trademark withword "brand"help defineword astrademark. Johnson & Johnson changedlyricstheir BAND-AID television commercial jingle from, "I am stuck on BAND-AIDs, 'cause BAND-AID's stuck on me""I am stuck on BAND-AID brand, 'cause BAND-AID's stuck on me."

The conceptgenericized trademarksparodied in1993 film Demolition Man where Taco Bellused asgeneric word"restaurant"; even fine dining establishments.

European Union

In 2003European Unionseekingrestrictuseregion names as trademarksspeciality fooddrinkmanufacturers fromregion. Extending these restrictions outside Europecontroversial because regional names thattrademarks within Europeoften considered genericother countries. Itmade even more difficult where regional names have been trademarked outside Europe, such as Parma ham, whichtrademarkedCanada byCanadian manufacturer, preventingmanufacturers from Parma from using their own name. Products affected include Champagne, Bordeauxmany other wine names, Roquefort, ParmesanFeta cheese, Scotch whiskyParma ham. In1990sParma consortium successfully suedAsda supermarket chainpreventusingtrademark Parma on ham not producedpackedParma. See Protected DesignationOrigin.

Former trademarks now used generically

Current trademarks thatoften used generically

(Thisnecessarily"subjective" list.)

See also

External links


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