The slide to genericide
July 24th, 2006 by Ron Coleman | Print
Evan Brown writes about everyone’s favorite candidate for the dustbin of trademark history — Google.
It’s obvious to me that Google has made a conscious decision not to police the use of its trademark as a verb, because as far as I know it never does. The reason is not obvious to me, however, since Google does indeed police other trademark infringements, including dubious ones. But I am very reluctant to second guess Google, which has been very, very good to LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION.
February 6th, 2008 at 5:40 am
[...] My only little observation is this: Google is number one — an extraordinary achievement, indeed, considering that some of these brands are over a century old. Yet it is also the only one that is at serious risk of becoming no brand (i.e., trademark) at all, despite its own belated efforts. And — tell me if I’m wrong; I don’t have the time to do the homework — it seems to be the only one that is not itself a registered trademark? [...]