4 ms·
I agree from an ethical point of view and will change the domain. > Everyone says "Google" to mean "do an internet search". It's still a registered trademark a
by mitak 8y ago
I agree from an ethical point of view and will change the domain.
> Everyone says "Google" to mean "do an internet search". It's still a registered trademark and you can't promote your own product using that name.
You're right, but there are counterexamples. [I'm not a lawyer but...] There is such a thing as a "generic trademark" where former trademarks like "Escalator", "Thermos", "Hovercraft", "Videotape", "Teleprompter", "Aspirin" etc. have been "genericized".
Apparently Google won their lawsuit because "Google" is a very distinctive word.
For me "geoip" felt/sounded generic and I see a lot of geolocation plugins and services using the term in their names, descriptions, etc.
- Terretta 8y agoVery selective counter examples. The list of ‘nope, still protected’ is longer, including Kleenex and bubble wrap. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_genericized_trademarks https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_generici... And contrary to Wikipedia, I think you’ll find only Thermos gets away with Thermos. The term geoip is certainly theirs. While we offered competing techniques built into our service, they were the first I heard use that. Then everyone subscribed their DB and called it that.