Trademark becomes generic

What is a Generic Trademark?

Generic trademarks

are phrases often used to identify products or services, such as "shoes" for a shoe company. No one may register generic trademarks since they describe a product. These trademarks are not protected in any way.

Brands can utilize a variety of trademarks, but those that fall under the generic umbrella provide no protection. For example, a local shoe business that simply labelled itself "Shoe Store" would not be entitled to use that identity.

Any brand may freely utilize these phrases in creating, marketing, promotion and other parts of making and selling their products or services since they define conventional vocabulary for specific sectors. Genericization can cause strong trademarks to become generic over time. This procedure makes it possible for anybody to use the trademark without permission.

Examples of Generic Trademarks

Aspirin, Cellophane, Zipper, Kleenex, Thermos, Popsicle, Jeep, Colgate, XEROX, Surf, Cadbury and more prominent trademarked names have now become generic due to improper and on-going public usage.

Aspirin: Acetylsalicylic acid is found in aspirin, a pain reliever. In 1917, Bayer AG trademarked the name by combining two German terms. In 1919, aspirin lost its trademark status, and it is currently used generically.

Cellophane: Cellophane is a made-up word formed by combining the words "cellulose" and "diaphane" (transparent). In 1912, chemist Jacques E. Brandenberger registered the phrase as a trademark. Cellophane is now a generic term in the United States, while still a trademark in other countries.

Escalator: In 1900, the Otis Elevator Company trademarked the phrase. When the USPTO found that Otis had used the word generically in its patents, "escalator" became a generic term.

Heroin: In 1898, Bayer AG trademarked the term heroin. This drug’s name is derived from the German word "heroisch," which means "strong."

Linoleum: When Frederick Walton invented Linoleum in 1864, he never trademarked it. Genericide spread quickly: by the late 1870s, the term had become widely accepted.

Reasons Behind Trademark Genericide

Trademark genericide has a simple explanation. The trademark gets genericized as a result of the public’s continued usage of the word to refer to a specific product rather than its source. The more popular a product is, the more likely it will die a generic death.

There are a variety of reasons why a trademark becomes generic over time. The first possibility is that the product was unique and had monopolistic market power, and hence the public connected the brand with the good rather than the source of the good. The word "genericide" is occasionally used to describe a process in which a trademark owner actively contributes to the degradation of the trademark’s uniqueness, sometimes inadvertently. Another cause for trademark genericide is the absence of an acceptable alternative word for the good, as demonstrated by the lack of a suitable substitute name for the product.

• Escalator’ is a name used to describe a type of escalator. The word ‘escalator’ is snappy and imaginative, and it’s a lot simpler to pronounce than the word ‘escalator,’ which refers to a moving stairway made by the Otis Elevator Company. Another cause of trademark genericide is firms’ contradictory behaviour when it comes to their trademark. Companies want their products to be well-known, but they don’t want the public to mistakenly associate the brand with the product rather than the source. Trademarks such as Kleenex, Trampoline, and others have become generic phrases due to inept promotion and insufficient control methods.

Gaurav Suyal Is Law Student And Practicing In Intellectual property