How to Care for Your Trademark

A recent trademark client told me he couldn't wait for his brand to be so famous people would use it as a verb, like to google (to search online) or to xerox (to copy documents electronically).

The problem is, a trademark is an adjective that describes the source or maker of a good or service. Using a trademark as a noun or a verb can turn your valuable brand name and asset into a generic word that your competitors can adopt to describe a category of product or service.

Xerox is frantically trying to keep its exclusive trademark rights for XEROX brand imaging products.

Johnson & Johnson is equally as frantic in trying to get people to say "BAND-AID brand adhesive bandages.

Some trademarks that have become generic include: aspirin, escalator, styrofoam, kerosene, dry ice, thermos, lanolin, linoleum and laudromat.

Trademarks are likely to commit "genericide" when they are associated with a new product category.

To prevent genericide, take a lesson from Sanka brand decaffeinated instant coffee. Coffee without caffeine was a new invention in 1903, so the owner introduced two new words to the buying public: SANKA (a brand name) and decaffeinated coffee (the product category). SANKA was protected as a trademark (now owned by Kraft Foods) a