GNOME gets GroupedOn

Posted Nov 11, 2014 17:31 UTC (Tue) by nye (subscriber, #51576)
In reply to: GNOME gets GroupedOn by rjw57
Parent article: GNOME gets GroupedOn

My definition of living memory is slightly more stringent than 'there is somebody still alive who were alive at the time' - I'd also require that they be old enough at the time to actually remember the time before, which probably rules out Aspirin, Gramophone, and Hoover.

Nevertheless, I will concede 'Escalator', which became genericised more recently than I realised (1950), and 'Thermos' which I wasn't aware is legally generic in the US (since 1963 - would that make it the most recently genericised trademark in the US?).

Thanks for responding, anyway - you're the first person that's been able to give me an example of any trademark becoming generic within *almost* the last 50 years.

GNOME gets GroupedOn

Posted Nov 11, 2014 17:34 UTC (Tue) by nye (subscriber, #51576) [Link]

>My definition of living memory is slightly more stringent than 'there is somebody still alive who were alive at the time' - I'd also require that they be old enough at the time to actually remember the time before

Actually, I guess there are probably a fair few people nowadays living to 110 or so, so fair enough - technically I should be looking about a decade further back than I was thinking of.

GNOME gets GroupedOn

Posted Nov 16, 2014 20:32 UTC (Sun) by JanC_ (guest, #34940) [Link]

Some trademarks have become semi-generic, at the very least (there might be no lawsuit/judge who ruled about it, but they are used as a generic in practice in at least some areas).

Examples would be Bic (which is used/understood by _everyone_ as a generic name for a ballpoint pen in some countries, although the Bic company has been fighting violently against that), Velcro, Walkman, etc.