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The name game with Philips goes back many decades because there was once a vacuum tube manufacturer in the U.S.A. named ''Phillips'' (two ls), so they were forc
by cf100clunk 4y ago
The name game with Philips goes back many decades because there was once a vacuum tube manufacturer in the U.S.A. named ''Phillips'' (two ls), so they were forced to adopt new trade names for the lucrative North American market: the Norelco name for consumer appliances and the Maganavox name for consumer electronics. Their reputation for quality was excellent back then. Oddly, Canada's Bell Telephone subsidiary Northern Electric did not push Philips away from using the Norelco name. Nowadays those names have almost no connection to their original organization.
- wkat4242 4y agoWeird, the Dutch brand is a given name, I thought these were always allowed especially because the spelling is different. But I've never heard of Norelco. Magnavox yes, it was a bit of a B-brand in Europe, similar to Aristona.
- cf100clunk 4y agoGenerally the products and their packaging were simply ''badge engineered'' to swap out the Philips name for Norelco or Magnavox. North American consumers back then would likely not have recognized the Philips brand. Heck, it is doubtful most of them would have recognized the Phillips brand of vacuum tubes either, but trademark law prevailed. As for given names, there is no special exemption for them (i.e. someone named Heinz cannot use their given name to begin marketing a line of food condiments without a battery of corporate lawyers representing the giant Heinz outfit putting an end to that).