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I think its important to understand what you are also getting into with a trademark. They mention: actively asserted and defended in order to have legal me

I think its important to understand what you are also getting into with a trademark. They mention: actively asserted and defended in order to have legal meaning. This is a critical piece of owning a trademark. It must be defended which means that you have to issue cease and desist letters, normally engaging an attorney to do so, or else you risk losing your trademark altogether or it becoming genericized, i.e. 'Kleenex': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_trademark https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_trademark

zodiakzz 6y ago
Only in 0.000001% of cases when your product is a massive hit. >A generic trademark, also known as a genericized trademark or proprietary eponym, is a trademark or brand name that, because of its popularity or significance, has become the generic term for, or synonymous with, a general class of product or service.
MayeulC 6y ago
This is often repeated, but misguided: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/11/trademark-law-does-not-require-companies-tirelessly-censor-internet https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/11/trademark-law-does-not... Genericides do occur, but they are rather exceptional, and you generally can't do much about it (imagine the public starting to talk of dashboards as grafanas). Cease-and-desists should probably be reserbed for severe missuse, such as a competitor selling their product as yours, etc.
- MaxBarraclough 6y ago
  Even if it were really that easy to fall prey to the genericide rules, couldn't companies fulfill the enforcement obligations more amicably by asking for a nominal fee? I suppose that might open the door to the party making wider use of the trademarked term though.
- forty 6y ago
  On this topic, can someone explain how Elasticsearch got f*cked by AWS which is using their name for their competing hosted ES service?
  - asperous 6y ago
    They may have to change it now since the fork, but before there was no problem since they were not trying to deceive customers, they were running elastic search. You can sell a Honda with after market parts and still say its a Honda. You just can't sell a Kia and call it a Porsche trying to trick people.

zodiakzz 6y ago

Only in 0.000001% of cases when your product is a massive hit. >A generic trademark, also known as a genericized trademark or proprietary eponym, is a trademark or brand name that, because of its popularity or significance, has become the generic term for, or synonymous with, a general class of product or service.

MayeulC 6y ago

This is often repeated, but misguided: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/11/trademark-law-does-not-require-companies-tirelessly-censor-internet https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/11/trademark-law-does-not... Genericides do occur, but they are rather exceptional, and you generally can't do much about it (imagine the public starting to talk of dashboards as grafanas). Cease-and-desists should probably be reserbed for severe missuse, such as a competitor selling their product as yours, etc.

MaxBarraclough 6y ago
Even if it were really that easy to fall prey to the genericide rules, couldn't companies fulfill the enforcement obligations more amicably by asking for a nominal fee? I suppose that might open the door to the party making wider use of the trademarked term though.
forty 6y ago
On this topic, can someone explain how Elasticsearch got f*cked by AWS which is using their name for their competing hosted ES service?
- asperous 6y ago
  They may have to change it now since the fork, but before there was no problem since they were not trying to deceive customers, they were running elastic search. You can sell a Honda with after market parts and still say its a Honda. You just can't sell a Kia and call it a Porsche trying to trick people.