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When you have a cold, you use a lot of kleenex. When you cut yourself, you put on a band-aid. You tweet your latest story, about the cops who tasered the guy who was rollerblading down the sidewalk, xerox the clip and fedex it to your mom. Then you google yourself to see how many hits you get.
How many trademark infringements were committed in the previous paragraph? Enough to keep a few lawyers busy.
Many reporters have received at least one letter warning about trademark infringement. Among the most active (vigilant?) complainers are Wham-O (âFrisbeeâ is a brand of âplastic flying discâ) and Xerox. And what reporter hasnât had a complaint from a realtor remonstrating that not every real estate salesperson is a Realtor?
Who cares? The trademark holders do. (Sometimes they care too much, as Chevroletâs misfire against the use of Chevy proves.) Hereâs Googleâs take: âIf trademarks are not used properly, they may be lost and one of the companyâs most important assets may lose all of its value. Rights may be lost not only because of a trademark ownerâs improper use of the mark, but through improper use of the trademark by the public.â (âThe publicâ includes journalists.)
âAspirinâ used to be a trademark, and still is in many countries. Ditto âheroin.â CompuServe claimed âEmailâ as a trademark in 1983, but abandoned it in 1984.
âTaserâ is still a trademark. Its Web site says: âThe TASER trademark pays homage to Thomas A. Swiftâs Electric Rifle, a childhood inspiration of John H. âJackâ Cover, inventor of early ECDs.â An âECDâ is an âelectronic control device,â which is the generic name the company wants you to use. (You donât have to, any more than you have to all-cap TASER or need to respect Research in Motionâs request to call more than one of their products âBlackBerry devices.â) âJetwayâ is a trademark, too; you can call them âjet bridges,â and hope no one thinks youâve misspoken an actorâs name.
Sometimes not using a trademark is easy: You blow your nose with a âtissue,â patch your boo-boo with a âbandage,â make a âcopy,â and âovernightâ it. But avoiding a trademark can also tie you up in knots. (See âECD,â above.) If youâre not sure theyâre Rollerblades, you have to call them âinline skatesâ or âin-line roller skates.â A Jet Ski thatâs not a Kawasaki is a âpersonal watercraft,â a jargony term if ever there was one. (Sorry: âWaveRunnerâ is Yamahaâs trademark.)
Which brings us to âgoogleâ and âtweet.â Googleâs Web site, like many, says to use its name âonly as an adjective, never as a noun or verb, and never in the plural or possessive form.â That seems to eliminate âgoogleâ as a verb. Yet many dictionaries have endorsed âgoogleâ as a generic verb for an Internet search. Can this trademark be saved?
Twitter, on the other hand, is an open source business. Its Web site endorses many variations of its trademark, nearly all of them lowercase. It says: âIf âtweetâ is hard for you to use with a straight face in a business context, try âtwitteringâ as a verb instead.â
The New York Times caused a kerfuffle recently when its standards editor advised against the use of âtweetâ except âoccasionally for special effect.â The Associated Press Stylebook, however, wholeheartedly endorses it: âThe verb is to tweet, tweeted. A Twitter message is known as a tweet.â
So, wrap that trademark in âcellophaneâ and put it in your âthermosâ to protect it.*
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*lost trademarks
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