Re: GEN: Xerox, xerox

[Ken Umbach <kumbach@UNLIMITED.NET>]

Hi ...

Kimberly-Clark makes Kleenex.

In any event, the problem is that if the trademarks go undefended, they are
LOST.  For that reason, no owner of a valuable trademark will fail to defend
it, although there is no way that they can do much when ordinary people, in
ordinary conversation, misuse a trademark as a generic term.  There is
substantial value to the trademark owners in those words.  It is not in
their interest for people to think that they are buying a Xerox (brand)
copier when they buy just ANY photocopier, or for people to assume that ALL
"facial tissues" are identical (that all are "kleenex"), and hence it makes
no difference what the brand name is, since they are all "kleenex."  Hence
trademark owners cannot afford to ignore *published* misuse of their
trademarks or to permit proliferation of such misuse to go unchecked.
(There is, by the way, a long history of the Coca Cola company defending its
trademark "Coke" against generic use to refer to all cola drinks -- to the
point, as I recall, of suing restaurants that serve Pepsi in response to a
diner's request for Coke without the server telling the diner that the place
actually serves Pepsi.)

Browse any issue of _Writer's_Digest_ and you will likely see notices
published by, for example, Caterpillar, reminding writers that the word is
trademarked and not to be used generically for all equipment of that type.

Regards,

Ken

At 01:33 PM 8/28/98 -0400, you wrote:
>I expect Xerox deplores the use of their trademarked product
>name in a generic manner to the same extent Kleenex, Inc.,
>is sorry people don't go around saying, "Pass the facial
>tissues, please."
...
--
Kenneth W. Umbach, Ph.D., Policy Analyst, California Research Bureau,
California State Library, 900 N Street, Suite 300, Sacramento, CA 95814
E-mail: kumbach@unlimited.net (or kumbach@library.ca.gov)
Phone: (voice) 916-653-6002 (fax) 916-654-5829
Personal Web page and selected papers: http://members.unlimited.net/~kumbach
This message reflects my opinion, not that of my employer or anyone else.

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