I remember learning that trademarks that have been genericized (like Band-Aid, Popsicle, Velcro, Clorox, etc) are at risk of losing their trademark or copyright.
Can someone explain to me how exactly does this work? Cause i never really understood this
Trademark inherently can’t be generic. It has to refer to something distinct.
For example, apples have nothing to do with computers, so the name makes you think of the exact brand Apple computers. But if you tried to trademark your apple company Apple, that would be taking away the ability of competitors to describe the product they’re selling. Which is not ok.
So, when your brand name becomes the common word to describe a product, you have to stop your competitors from using your name to advertise their products in the first place. Otherwise, your brand name doesn’t just refer to your products, so it’s not distinct. You’ve become Apple apples.
I get that a company would want to stop other companies using the genericized trademark. But is there any problem for consumers?
As far as I can tell, you can still buy Kleenex brand Kleenex’s and Q-tip brand Q-tips, and coke brand coke.
No, this is just a legal question about the degree to which companies are allowed to restrict their competitors’ marketing.
It’s funny you picked Apple computers because they were in a legal fight with Apple records of Beatles fame who’ve been around longer and were only allowed to keep the name if they stayed out of the music business. Which went well until iTunes and then they found themselves back in the lawsuit.
Hence the Sci-Fi channel’s rebrand to SyFy.