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"It seems Aspirin was once an actual brand name, that we now use generically. "
It still is, in Canada. I remember having to ask for ASA (acetylsalicylic acid) because Aspirin meant Bayer and only Bayer.
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What I think is interesting about this, is that it can only happen spontaneously. Companies are always trying to make this happen with their products, but the public is so fickle!
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Carpal Tunnel
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I'd always heard that companies were fighting like Billio to prevent it from happening, as it means they lose the rights to the name, so that anyone, for example, could call their pills aspirin.
Bingley
Bingley
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No, no, Bingley! Just the opposite! If a product name becomes the standard for that type of product, then it is the exemplar of that genre of products. Companies love that!
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No, Ruby they don't -- Xerox spends alot of money being xerox and making that the company.. they do not want to have xerox=copy/copies
Nor does the Klennex company want to lose the rights to its name.. if the names are used 'genericaly' in a publications,(say in a piece of fiction) the Xerox company lawyers will sue..
"cookie and cream ice cream isn't 'oreo ice cream'-- cause oreo is a brand name, not a generic one for chocolate cookie with super sweet white icing filling..
when something is close to generic, like oreo, companies will bring out variations, to widen the meaning, and to re-enforce its right to own the "name".
an oreo by any other name is a hydrox, or something!
in Canada, ask for "asprin" and you get a Bayer brand pill. in US, any company can use the term asprin- it is no advantage to Bayer, the first company to market ASA, and the company that worked hard to "develop" a market for Asprin!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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There is even a word, genericide, for this process. It means the "killling off" of a trademark by its becoming a general name.
Bingley
Bingley
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Carpal Tunnel
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Companies love that!
Which is why they hire lawyers to stop anyone from doing it.
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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I rest your case: [whiteout alert] [crossthread alert]"[Google] wants to protect its big-G, trademarked name rather than see it used as a little-g, generic term." http://snurl.com/1afr
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Carpal Tunnel
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And I would say that Googleplex®'s attempts to get at McFedries is an example of shooting the messenger.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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hey, their expensive team of lawyers had to start somewhere..
I can just see them, googling like mad. <eg>
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