The Quick 10: 10 Common Words That Used To Be Trademarked

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.