Avoiding "Genericide" Of Your Trademark

On February 3^rd, Schoenherr will present its Roadmap 2011. Now in its fifth edition, the Roadmap is an annual publication which presents an overview from our lawyers of recent and upcoming legal developments in our core practice areas, as well as critical insights and analyses of those developments. This is one of the articles that will appear in the upcoming edition. From February 7^th, you can order your own copy of the roadmap on our website: www.schoenherr.eu/roadmap11

Being famous is not so bad, especially for trademarks, unless it leads to genericide.

What is genericide?

The better known a trademark is in the market, the broader its protection. But the situation can arise where a trademark becomes so well known as a brand for a product that it becomes the generic name for all such products no matter who produced them. If a brand loses its distinctiveness and becomes a pure generic term, then it also loses trademark protection. Well known examples of