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Archive 1Archive 2Archive 3

Super Bowl

Super Bowl is as much of a generic trademark as Formula One is because nearly all of it's time, it refer mainly to the trademark and nothing else like Nomex. So therefore this has to go. Donnie Park (talk) 12:01, 10 March 2016 (UTC)

Yes, agree with that. And thanks for removing all unsourced ones. --hydrox (talk) 13:47, 10 March 2016 (UTC)

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Canola?

Was canola initially intended as a trademark or was it coined as a generic term? Today, even the Canola Council of Canada, formerly the Rapeseed Association of Canada, spells it in lowercase. --T71024 (talk) 23:14, 27 March 2016 (UTC)

Porta-potty?

Is porta-potty a genericized trademark? --T71024 (talk) 23:16, 27 March 2016 (UTC)

Yellow Pages?

Would Yellow pages belong in one of the categories in this article? --T71024 (talk) 19:34, 28 March 2016 (UTC)

Removals

I've pulled these from the list because there was no reference in their parent articles to their use as generics. Since this is a list, we should stick to listing items identified as used generically in their entries.

Removed entries:

Freon chlorofluorocarbon refrigerant DuPont largely removed from the market
Google internet search Google
iPod MP3 Player Apple
Panadol paracetamol GlaxoSmithKline
Tylenol paracetamol (INN), in US termed acetaminophen (USAN) Johnson & Johnson
Walkman personal stereo Sony
Ziploc zipper storage bag SC Johnson

ComputerGeezer (talk) 23:43, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

First of all, if it isn't listed in the article, then the article for the item could be missing information, rather than the item not deserving to be here. Secondly, Google (verb) does mention that it is being used as a generic name, and that Google is fighting this. 64.91.186.214 (talk) 05:42, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
"Be bold". Add the Google (verb) reference to the Google article, put the list category on it, and then add it back here. I just pulled it because it was not in the Google article. ComputerGeezer (talk) 18:58, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
I disagree with the Freon being removed, as most people know Freon, but don't know the individual refrigerants, such as r-12, r134a, r-22 etc. However, the vernacular "My home's A/C needs Freon," is heard frequently, although what is literally meant is "My home's A/C needs R-22." R-22 is NOT a Freon CFC, but most people do not know this. A Google Search for Freon brings up all sorts of other, non-Freon-based refrigerants. Anyone object to this before I re-insert it?
Also, the use of Colt for an "Old-West" revolver/gun is quite inaccurate and needs to be removed. Within the vernacular today the term Colt is more likely to refer to the Model 1911 semi-automatic, modern pistol than it is to refer to the Single Action Army or previous models. Additionally, American West Gunslingers knew the specifics of their guns, and would never refer to their non-Colt gun as such. Granted, Colt dominated handgun production of the time, but not to the point of an eponym or a generic trademark, ahead of other major brands such as Smith and Wesson and Remington. Lmt 7816 (talk) 13:31, 29 August 2010 (UTC)
I don't know if the associated section was in this article when this topic was created in 2008, but I believe, at the very least, Ziploc and Tylenol could be added to List of protected trademarks frequently used as generic terms. Schiffy (Speak to me|What I've done) 15:50, 28 June 2016 (UTC)

Google is a generic verb

Fact. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.0.164.119 (talk) 17:42, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

Jell-O™ Why isn't jello showing on the list?

Source here RPSM (talk) 09:35, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

At one time Jell-O was the sponsor of the Jack Benny radio program. On one of their ads, Don Wilson pointed out that JELLO was not a generic term for flavored gelatin deserts, but a brand name. This shows that they were aware of its generic usage. I cannot give the episode subject or name or number or airing date. agb — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.233.167.63 (talk) 19:27, 11 April 2017 (UTC)

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Polaroid: where does it fit?

"Polaroid" as generic trademark for

  • photographic film which instantly produces a positive print using chemical processes
  • cameras using such film
  • pictures taken using such film

This is kind an odd case for two main reasons.

  1. The instant camera started out as just one product made by Polaroid Corporation, a company who made products using polarizers. It wasn't even called the Polaroid Camera, the official name was "Land Camera." This nomenclature included through the 1970s (see the SX-70 Land Camera) and presumably only ended when Edwin Land left the company in 1982.
  2. The people who currently own the Polaroid trademark don't even make instant cameras or film anymore. However, such products (including Impossible's compatible films and Fuji's incompatible Instax line) are still referred to as Polaroids.

Where does this all go? --(agnamaracs) (talk) 13:35, 1 June 2017 (UTC)

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Comic Con

An IP editor recently added:

Comic Con
Used to refer to a comic convention. The Trademark Application was filed by San Diego Comic-Con in 1995 as "Comic Con". "Comic Con" was abandoned as a trademark in 1999.[1]

References

  1. ^ "Trademark Status & Document Retrieval - Comic Con". United States Patent and Trademark Office. Retrieved 2017-07-06.

I'm going to revert this, for a few different reasons.

First, this application, 74/706,192, is just one application's abandonment. ser. no. 87/084,757 (COMIC-CON) is another completely separate application for registration, still very much alive, although under suspension pending resolution of 13 potentially conflicting applications and two petitions to cancel. Far from the mark itself (as opposed to one application) being abandoned, it's very much alive. Another actual registration (not just an application) is reg. no. 3,219,568 (COMIC-CON). It's currently subject to a petition to cancel, but at the moment it's very much alive, and a registered trademark. So we can't just point to a single application abandonment and claim genericness.

Second, cherry-picking from PTO records is WP:OR. (So is this comment; but the difference is I'm not using OR to put something into the article.) A statement that this name is now generic should not be added without a source that says so; extrapolating from an abandonment of an application to register to a conclusion that the mark that had sought to been registered is generic is WP:SYNTH. (I should note that I don't have any objections to citation to the PTO's TSDR for identification purposes, to either identify the mark in question, or the former owner; just not as the basis for a conclusion of genericnness.)

Finally, PTO records are only reflective of a mark's registration, not of whether the mark is indeed a mark. A party may seek to register a trademark and abandon that registration, without abandoning the trademark itself. It's a mistake to look at a registration's abandonment and conclude from that that the trademark is also gone. TJRC (talk) 22:48, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

Archiving

Any objection to turning on some mild auto-archiving? I'm thinking of archiving 2-year-stale threads. TJRC (talk) 15:24, 7 August 2017 (UTC)

 Done TJRC (talk) 21:18, 11 August 2017 (UTC)

Proposal - add trademarks that were formerly genericized

I am proposing that we should add a section on trademarks that were once used generically, but have since fallen into disuse. An example is Nintendo, since in the 1990s the name "Nintendo" was used to refer to any video game console regardless of manufacturer. Nintendo has since protected its trademark and pushed the term "game console", which has pushed Nintendo's trademark into disuse as a generic term. ANDROS1337TALK 16:30, 29 August 2017 (UTC)

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Things to add

Not sure which section they should go in. I might do the research myself, but I'll probably forget to.

PointyOintment (talk) 05:15, 2 October 2017 (UTC)

Please make sure that there's a reliable source characterizing the additions as generic. The article's already a bit of a mess, relying on individual users' judgments in many cases; it's in need of a cleanup in that regard, but let's not make it worse. TJRC (talk) 21:29, 2 October 2017 (UTC)
I was thinking today that we should have a dedicated section of the talk page, or maybe a subpage of it, for suggested additions. One subsection for each suggestion, in alphabetical order, and then we can discuss each one individually as to finding sources, deciding which section of the article it belongs in, etc. I've thought of a bunch more to suggest and I think such a process would make it much more efficient. What do you think? PointyOintment (talk · contribs) 23:45, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

is Roomba genericized?

are there any other brands of floor cleaning robots? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.152.116.234 (talk) 21:34, 6 December 2016 (UTC)

There are many, but I don't think it is. I only rarely hear the Roomba name used to refer to a robotic vacuum cleaner of another brand. PointyOintment (talk · contribs) 00:49, 5 October 2017 (UTC)

Missing Items

The following items are missing:

POPULAR TERM REAL TERM
CRESCENT WRENCH adjustable open-end wrench
ALLEN WRENCH hex key wrench
VICE GRIP toggle-joint plier
MOTO-TOOL rotary grinding tool
X-ACTO KNIFE hobby knife
WEED EATER string trimmer
THUMB DRIVE USB flash drive

Wikipedia has articles about and/or containing some of these.

These are all things that I use personally. There might be others that don't come to mind at the moment, and yet others that I don't use. agb — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.233.167.63 (talk) 19:03, 11 April 2017 (UTC)

"Thumb Drive" reminds me of "JumpDrive", which I heard from my teachers all the time in high school, despite our flash drives being made by Verbatim, not Lexar. Indeed, the Lexar article says JumpDrive was commonly used generically (though it's unsourced). PointyOintment (talk · contribs) 00:59, 5 October 2017 (UTC)

potential new addition

  • ChapStick (Wyeth LLC) - lip balm

SamSennett (talk) 20:21, 27 December 2017 (UTC)

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Wellies

Should Wellies/Wellington boots be added.NearCry (talk) 00:16, 16 May 2018 (UTC)

Registered trademark vs non-registered?

Much of this article appears to overlook the fact that a trademark registration is completely optional in many countries, including the USA, yet cites the cancellation or rejection of such registrations as evidence of genericization. In fact, it's not even conclusive proof of abandonment of the brand, as mentioned above, by TJRC. In my opinion, a trademark does not become irrefutably "generic" until a court has ruled against its enforcement on that basis, or until the owners simply give up trying to enforce it. The mere fact that millions of consumers are incapable of distinguishing goods based upon brands does not, by itself, make that brand "generic", in the legal sense.Lupinelawyer (talk) 22:25, 28 October 2018 (UTC)

GoPro?

I've seen GoPro used as a generic term for action cameras. Should it be added to the list?

HelloChapie (talk) 23:50, 22 April 2019 (UTC)

Popsicle - Example of genericization.

The source given as an example of "Popsicle" being used generically (a patent from 1924) doesn't actually contain ANY use of the term "Popsicle" whatsoever. A better example/source should be found. 82.27.104.216 (talk) 08:05, 6 September 2018 (UTC)

I tagged it with template:failed verification, so maybe that'll catch someone's attention and they'll find a better source. PointyOintment · 02:01, 29 October 2018 (UTC)
about 2 years after the initial request, but I added a correct refference for Popsicle used as a generic trademark LeniGC (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 12:14, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

Zoom should not be part of this

Nobody says "Let me Zoom you" and then uses Skype. You say "Let me Skype you" if you are going to use Skype. Zoom is not a genericized trademark for video-conferencing. -Caleb KG (talk) 16:44, 11 August 2020 (UTC)

I beg to differ. Both Zoom and Skype are used regularly to refer to videocalling "in general". See the examples taken from newspapers all over the world: Skkype and Zoom. Examples include expressions like "Zoom fatigue", "Skype era", "a Skype wedding", "Zoom parliament", "Zoomers" and "Zoom parliament" etc. These are examples where the author used the brand name as "synonymous with a general class of product or service", the definition of a generic trademark LeniGC (talk) 14:07, 25 November 2020 (UTC)
This should be removed, considering Skype isn't on the list. Also WP:RECENTISM, WP:CRYSTAL, etc. Zoom basically didn't exist last year. 93.142.105.199 (talk) 08:38, 27 November 2020 (UTC)

sellotape contradiction

Sellotape is in the list of former trademarks that lost their protection, but also in the list of semi-generic terms that retain their trademark protection. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.41.18.250 (talk) 20:37, 30 October 2017 (UTC)

Transit?

As noted in the Ford Transit article, “Transit” has become a generic term for a medium-sized van, whether it’s a Ford or a similar vehicle from another manufacturer. I don’t know about other countries but it’s certainly the case in the UK. Mr Larrington (talk) 20:57, 19 May 2022 (UTC)

FaceTime, Honda?

I'm in IT... Whenever people want to make a video call, even if the person doesn't have an Apple device, it's quite common for people to say "FaceTime" even when it's either a generic video call or even another method (e.g. Skype, Facebook Messenger, etc.).

Also while I got a thread open, I'm working in rural Alaska, and many people refer to their ATVs as a Honda; even though most ATVs I've seen are indeed Honda-branded, just about everybody I've met will still use the word "Honda" to describe say, Polaris or other brands of ATVs.

As there is a note saying to not add new unsourced entries, I figured I'd ask first. Edwardw818 (talk) 02:46, 27 July 2022 (UTC)