When does a trademark stop being a trademark? ASPIRIN,
CELLOPHANE and ESCALATOR are all examples of words that were once
trademarks, but ultimately came to be used and understood by the
public as the names for the products themselves, not as specific
brands indicating the sources of those products. When potential
customers think of a trademark as a term for the category of
products, the trademark becomes generic and is no longer entitled
to protection. This loss of trademark rights is known as
"genericide." A recent case, Elliott v. Google, provides insight
into how genericide can occur — and how it can be
avoided.
In October 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court refused, without opinion, to hear a claim that
the GOOGLE trademark had become a victim of genericide, based on
the widespread use of GOOGLE to refer to internet searching (for
example, "I googled it"). The petitioner, David Elliott,
had attempted to register a number of Google-inclusive domain
names, such as
