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Everyone knows that Kleenex is one of those terms that people use generically even though it’s a trademarked word. Same with Band-Aid, Jell-O, Q-tip - the list goes on and on. But did you know that some extremely common terms used to be trademarked but are now considered generic by courts because of their frequent use? Here are a few of those words.
10 Common Words That Used To Be Trademarked
1. Cellophane was originally trademarked by DuPont.
2. Crock-Pot is actually trademarked by Rival Industries, but crock pot and crockpot are used generically.
3. Dry Ice was trademarked by the Dry Ice Corporation of America in 1925.
4. Escalator was a trademark of the Otis Elevator company.
5. Heroin was trademarked by Friedrich Bayer & Co.
6. Kerosene has been around since 1852, when it was coined by Canadian Abraham Gesner.
7. Linoleum was invented by Frederick Walton who founded the Linoleum Manufacturing Company.
8. Touch-tone was used exclusively by AT&T.
9. Trampoline was originally trademarked by George Nissen.
10. Zipper, similarly, was trademarked by an individual - B.F. Goodrich.
Don’t forget xerox.
posted by Judy on 6-3-2008 at 2:47 pm
Rollerblades!
posted by Ira on 6-3-2008 at 3:01 pm
Dumpster.
posted by Meaghin on 6-3-2008 at 3:27 pm
Most of those I can come up with an alternative, but how else do you say “zipper”?
posted by ac on 6-3-2008 at 3:42 pm
Umm…how about “Pants closure device excluding snaps and buttons”, ac?
posted by Amauriel on 6-3-2008 at 4:03 pm
In the military, we were corrected when we used a brand name… a zipper was a ’slide fastener’, and Velcro was ‘hook and pile tape’.
posted by Shanghai on 6-3-2008 at 4:06 pm
what about Kleenex?
posted by Alyssa on 6-3-2008 at 4:17 pm
Also Velcro and Granola.
But my alltime favorite is that the hormone “Adrenaline” is officially referred to (in the U.S.) by it’s generic name “Epinephrine” due to name similarity with the trademark of the synthesized version “Adrenalin”.
posted by Andrew on 6-3-2008 at 4:30 pm
Jacuzzi, of course, and Band-Aid
posted by Liz on 6-3-2008 at 4:33 pm
I know there’s a debate whether the word “podcast” refers to the iTunes product or any downloadable audio file that is played on your “personal on-demand” audio player. It seems natural that you would listen to podcasts on your ipod, right?
posted by Jamie on 6-3-2008 at 4:38 pm
I wrote an article referring to a giant ride-on vacuum cleaner as a “carpet Zamboni” - guess who I got an e-mail form telling me the correct term in “ice conditioning machine”
posted by PartiallyDeflected on 6-3-2008 at 7:17 pm
I’ve never called it a zipper - in NZ we always say ‘fly’. There’s your alternative!
posted by dangermouse on 6-3-2008 at 7:49 pm
In the old days people at least made up the word before they trademarked it. Like Kleenex, Jacuzzi etc…
Now people just take a common word or phrase that everyone already uses like caution (trademarked) or sweet pea (also trademarked).
Get some creativity people.
posted by Shannon on 6-3-2008 at 8:44 pm
Popsickle.
posted by Seth on 6-3-2008 at 9:11 pm
Popsicle, rather.
posted by Seth on 6-3-2008 at 9:16 pm
Aspirin was also a trademark of the Bayer Co. until after WWII when the USA stripped them of their copyrights and patents.
posted by v on 6-3-2008 at 10:06 pm
We discussed this in a journalism class I had. Sometimes trademarked names are used so commonly they lose their legal protection.
others are: yo-yo, bikini, and brassiere.
Jell-o, Band Aid, and Kleenex are still trademark names, not common words.
posted by Jenny on 6-3-2008 at 11:55 pm
It’s also really interesting living in a foreign country where they do things so much differently than us. I’ve basically stopped referring to things by their company names cause that’s not how the Japanese people I talk to do it. It’s become tissue, copy and so on for me now,
posted by Kenyon Colloran on 6-4-2008 at 12:47 am
How about a common word which is now a trademark. Both DC and Marvel jointly own the trademarked term “superhero”.
posted by Steve on 6-4-2008 at 2:19 am
JELL-O
posted by Mike on 6-4-2008 at 7:21 am
The trademarked term “zipper” actually has nothing to do with your pants or jackets. Zippers/Zips were rubber overshoes produced by Goodrich (tires, anyone?), and worn over your regular shoes when it was raining.
The University of Akron are The Zips, a name chosen in a contest. The student who suggested it did so on account of seeing those Zips on her fellow students all the time in the dreary Ohio winter/spring.
That is, by far, the only interesting thing about the University of Akron.
{Go Kent!}
posted by Rachel on 6-4-2008 at 8:08 am
Jello is certainly not a “common word” and is still trademarked.
I remember some years back a band named “Green Jello” was sued by Kraft and forced to change their name to “Green Jelly” and re-release their album under the new name. This probably had something to do with the band’s slogan: “Green Jello Sucks!”
posted by Florida on 6-4-2008 at 9:56 am
FRISBEE
posted by Katie D. on 6-4-2008 at 10:37 am
Aspirin.
posted by Melanie on 6-4-2008 at 11:24 am