Talk:List of generic and genericized trademarks/Archive 3

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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

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)

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)

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. ANDROS¹³³⁷_TALK 16:30, 29 August 2017 (UTC)

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

• Harmonic drive (Harmonic Drive Company) - strain wave gearing — Preceding unsigned comment added by PointyOintment (talk • contribs) 18:29, 2 October 2017 (UTC)

• Sawzall (Milwaukee Electric Tool Corporation) - sabre saw
• Skil saw (Skil) - circular saw (genericization mentioned in Skil article)
• Teflon (Chemours, formerly DuPont) - polytetrafluoroethylene

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)

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)

The following items are missing:

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)

• ChapStick (Wyeth LLC) - lip balm

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

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

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)

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)

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)

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 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)

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)

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)

No longer a trademark in the US. https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/search/search-information Search “super glue” on the US Patent and Trademark Office trademark site linked above. 75.130.225.34 (talk) 22:36, 30 December 2023 (UTC)

Generic in the US and the instant noodles page reflects this. Nicolasqueen (talk) 15:43, 23 March 2024 (UTC)

Perhaps I'm missing something, but I don't see where "ramen" has ever been a trademark. --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇} 16:51, 23 March 2024 (UTC)

This could be a good candidate for this list. It's often used as a stand-in for vocal pitch-correction despite being a specific product. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2620:15c:2d4:202:d31e:14ba:9541:fe8b (talk) 17:17, 15 May 2024 (UTC)

Do you have a reliable independent source? TJRC (talk) 17:45, 15 May 2024 (UTC)

The link to genericides.org/genericides-list returns a 404 Not Found and when I try to access genericides.org itself, I am immediately redirected to a clearly malicious website Dominic Vincent Irwin (talk) 15:20, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing it out; I've updated the article to use archive copies where possible. TJRC (talk) 18:14, 15 May 2024 (UTC)