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A comment on Judge Denies Apple Request To Stop Amazon From Using "App Store". Parent comment

Re:Judge Denies Apple Request To Stop Amazon From Using "App... by rcfox on Thursday July 07, 2011 @11:01AM (#2738703)
Trademarks and branding are strange things. One would assume that giving a term wide-spread use would be beneficial to everyone, but it seems that it's bad for companies. I still don't quite get it myself...

For example, "Google" as a verb:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/do-you-google.html

I assumed that "Google" as a verb is a good thing for Google. It would imply that they've managed to get a huge mindshare. Google's lawyers disagree.

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Re:Judge Denies Apple Request To Stop Amazon From Using "App... by GHFigs on Thursday July 07, 2011 @11:26AM (#2738828)
Consider:"Bing google engine, for all your googling needs. If you ever need to google something, use Bing!"
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Re:Judge Denies Apple Request To Stop Amazon From Using "App... by georgemcbay on Thursday July 07, 2011 @02:26PM (#2739650)
This video is 2 years old now, but still pretty funny:

http://www.collegehumor.com/video/5072264/googling-with-bing

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Re:Judge Denies Apple Request To Stop Amazon From Using "App... by danneu on Thursday July 07, 2011 @11:08AM (#2738739)
Because you can lose legal muscle behind your name if it becomes such common use that users might use the word without knowingly referencing your company's brand.

Kleenex is the staple case.

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Re:Judge Denies Apple Request To Stop Amazon From Using "App... by eropple on Thursday July 07, 2011 @11:50AM (#2738938)
Q-Tips are another one, IIRC.

Or, of course, Spam (but Hormel has been enlightened on the topic so it hasn't been a legal issue AFAIK).

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Re:Judge Denies Apple Request To Stop Amazon From Using "App... by dmbass on Thursday July 07, 2011 @03:14PM (#2739897)
Another classic one is Band-Aid.
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Re:Judge Denies Apple Request To Stop Amazon From Using "App... by chopsueyar on Thursday July 07, 2011 @09:32PM (#2740977)
thermos.
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Re:Judge Denies Apple Request To Stop Amazon From Using "App... by deepakshenoy on Friday July 08, 2011 @05:48AM (#2741810)
kerosene.
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Re:Judge Denies Apple Request To Stop Amazon From Using "App... by joshwa on Saturday July 09, 2011 @05:19AM (#2745355)
xerox. (fedex?)
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Re:Judge Denies Apple Request To Stop Amazon From Using "App... by rawsyntax on Thursday July 07, 2011 @02:21PM (#2739630)
So the problem is that you can't prevent others from using it?
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Re:Judge Denies Apple Request To Stop Amazon From Using "App... by esrauch on Thursday July 07, 2011 @11:34PM (#2741194)
It would be an interesting case if Google ends up becoming a legally generic term for search engine. Would the company end up changing it's name? Would there be Microsoft Google (formerly Bing) and Google Google?
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