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A lot of what's said and written about genericized trademarks is just utter BS. Go ahead and market a product named Thermos, Chapstick, Band-Aid, or Kleenex in

A lot of what's said and written about genericized trademarks is just utter BS. Go ahead and market a product named Thermos, Chapstick, Band-Aid, or Kleenex in the US and see how far you get.

swsieber 9y ago
That's not the issue here. Try selling a product called "Kleenex Dispenser" or "Man's Guide to Kleenex" and see how far you get. That's a more analogous example.
- comex 9y ago
  That is more analogous to the current situation, but it’s also irrelevant to the issue of trademark genericization, which the parent of your comment was replying to someone else’s claim about.
- rootlocus 9y ago
  > I'm surprised that "JavaScript" has not become a generic trademark If Kleenex = Java and Kleenex Dispenser = javascript, your argument is wrong.
  - johndough 9y ago
    I think the argument is Kleenex = javascript and "Kleenex Dispenser" = "HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, HTML, Snippet Editor": https://www.reddit.com/r/javascript/comments/8d0bg2/oracle_owns_javascript_so_apple_is_taking_down_my/dxjz82f/ https://www.reddit.com/r/javascript/comments/8d0bg2/oracle_o...
  - Brian_K_White 9y ago
    His argument is valid. You are correcting something he never said. Kleenex = JavaScript Kranky Kim's Kleenex Keeper = Blue Mountain JavaScript Percolator Kleenex is probably a bad example, because Kleenex has actually defended their trademark. At least I don't think Kranky Kim could actually use Kleenex in her product name. I think the legal argument for the genericized meaning of "javascript" is valid and could be argued, in that you ciuld show that it's reasonable for anyone to think it was merely a noun and not a trademark. But the argument would take more years and money than any individual developer has. Which begs the question: Is there any such thing as a class action but for defense instead of lawsuit? Oracle could snuff out a million app developers individually without ever even having to so much as appear once in court. Just send these letters. But could a million developers act as a class in a defense the way they could in an action?
- dotancohen 9y ago
  More apt would be KleenexScript. The community would call the FOSS build system "snot" and the linter "nosebleed".

A lot of what's said and written about genericized trademarks is just utter BS. Go ahead and market a product named Thermos, Chapstick, Band-Aid, or Kleenex in the US and see how far you get.

swsieber 9y ago

That's not the issue here. Try selling a product called "Kleenex Dispenser" or "Man's Guide to Kleenex" and see how far you get. That's a more analogous example.

comex 9y ago
That is more analogous to the current situation, but it’s also irrelevant to the issue of trademark genericization, which the parent of your comment was replying to someone else’s claim about.
rootlocus 9y ago
> I'm surprised that "JavaScript" has not become a generic trademark If Kleenex = Java and Kleenex Dispenser = javascript, your argument is wrong.
- johndough 9y ago
  I think the argument is Kleenex = javascript and "Kleenex Dispenser" = "HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, HTML, Snippet Editor": https://www.reddit.com/r/javascript/comments/8d0bg2/oracle_owns_javascript_so_apple_is_taking_down_my/dxjz82f/ https://www.reddit.com/r/javascript/comments/8d0bg2/oracle_o...
- Brian_K_White 9y ago
  His argument is valid. You are correcting something he never said. Kleenex = JavaScript Kranky Kim's Kleenex Keeper = Blue Mountain JavaScript Percolator Kleenex is probably a bad example, because Kleenex has actually defended their trademark. At least I don't think Kranky Kim could actually use Kleenex in her product name. I think the legal argument for the genericized meaning of "javascript" is valid and could be argued, in that you ciuld show that it's reasonable for anyone to think it was merely a noun and not a trademark. But the argument would take more years and money than any individual developer has. Which begs the question: Is there any such thing as a class action but for defense instead of lawsuit? Oracle could snuff out a million app developers individually without ever even having to so much as appear once in court. Just send these letters. But could a million developers act as a class in a defense the way they could in an action?
dotancohen 9y ago
More apt would be KleenexScript. The community would call the FOSS build system "snot" and the linter "nosebleed".