Sunday, January 6, 2013

Generic Trademarks

Does it ever catch your attention when you talk about qtips, band-aids or Kleenex? I think about it a lot when I use these words. They're brand names of items that we have started using for mainstream items. We not only use these words for Kleenex brand products, but we also use them for off-brand tissues.

It's an interesting phenomenon that has evolved over time. Descriptive terms like jell-o, saran wrap and xerox are used to describe both brand name and off-brand items. It's difficult for the companies that paid to have these items trademarked.

Can you think of any other examples of generic trademarks?

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