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posted by CoolHand on Monday August 21 2017, @09:44PM   Printer-friendly
from the just-duck-it dept.

Is the term "google" too generic and therefore unworthy of its trademark protection? That's the question before the US Supreme Court.

Words like teleprompter, thermos, hoover, aspirin, and videotape were once trademarked. They lost the status after their names became too generic and fell victim to what is known as "genericide."

What's before the Supreme Court is a trademark lawsuit that Google already defeated in a lower court. The lawsuit claims that Google should no longer be trademarked because the word "google" is synonymous to the public with the term "search the Internet."

"There is no single word other than google that conveys the action of searching the Internet using any search engine," according to the petition to the Supreme Court.

It's perhaps one of the most consequential trademark case before the justices since they ruled in June that offensive trademarks must be allowed.

Source: Ars Technica


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 22 2017, @10:01AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 22 2017, @10:01AM (#557450)

    Except that nobody uses "Disney" except for referring to the company. Have you ever heard someone say something like "I will disney this stuff"? Similar arguments also hold for Apple and Uber, except that here the situation is a bit more complicated, since both are common words; the protection is that they are not commonly used in their common meaning in the context of the respective products (e.g. I might say "I eat an apple", but then I'm not referring to a computer, a smartphone, etc.). If Apple were selling fruits, they probably would have a hard time maintaining trademark protection.

  • (Score: 2) by lx on Tuesday August 22 2017, @01:33PM

    by lx (1915) on Tuesday August 22 2017, @01:33PM (#557495)

    it's used as a verb. [dictionary.com]