Consumer Law & Policy Blog: “Can the RNC forbid the use of an elephant or “GOP” to identfy Republicans?“:
Although these references have been in popular use since the 1870’s, and owe more to Thomas Nast than to the Republicans themselves, back in the 1997 and 1995, respectively, the RNC trademarked the initials
TTAB decision holding HOTELS.COM to be generic.
Further to our previous post on the verbing of trademarks (as in, I Tivo’ed the show, or I Zappos at work), naming blog Away With Words discusses the issue from a marketing perspective and makes the points that clients often want precisely that: verbable names.
Patently O: “No Trademark Protection for ASPIRINA”
Interesting post with comments at The Seattle Trademark Lawyer regarding Zappos running a campaign titled “So I ZAPPOS At Work.” Michael is correct as the conventional wisdom (as embodied in this INTA brochure) that a trademark should be used as an adjective, not as a verb or a noun.
Wrong: I XEROXED the PLAY-DOH.
Clear and to the point. Apple doesn’t claim rights in the term PODCAST used in relation to podcasts.
Pretty entertaining communication from Google re use of Google as a verb here.