Comments on: Googlejuice?

By: Brian L

Brian L — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:22:19 +0000

I think, at least for websites, using terms, like google, generically will actually benefit trademark owners. As “googling” becomes synonymous with conducting an internet search, Google’s traffic is bound to increase as the terms entry into our daily lexicon is indicative of its status as the premiere search engine. I cannot imagine Yahoo or other companies appropriating the name google–any advertising along the lines of “google on Yahoo!” would simply lead users to ask why are they “googling on Yahoo” when they can simply go to google.com.

By: Patrick D

Patrick D — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:03:58 +0000

That’s a really interesting thought…some sort of middle-ground protection on “elevated” household words. I gather that the major problem for a company whose brand loses trademark status is that competitors can then appropriate the term, and thus whatever reputation the original company worked to create, to describe their own product. Maybe it would be worth adding a stipulation that even though the company no longer owns exclusive rights, use of the once-trademark for competitive, or even harmful purposes by direct competitors is actionable. Perhaps there could exist a separate committee that monitors the usage of trademarks that have been genericized. One solution, once a former trademark begins to refer to a whole genus of products, might be to then grant the originating company exclusive rights to call their product “The Original X,” or something of that sort. Less catchy, certainly, but at least credit is given where credit is due.

By: Carolyn N

Carolyn N — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:30:37 +0000

Ah, there’s the rub. Be too popular and lose legal trademark protection. Be too unpopular and well, it’s obvious, be irrelevant. Would you advocate a smidgen more protection for “elevated” household words such as ‘”xerox”? Or, any ideas on how to help Google and its ilk keep some protection for their names?