8 ms·
TIL that "duck tape" is actually the correct/original version, and "duct tape" is a modern derivative. I had always assumed it was the other way round, and som
by p-e-w 3y ago
TIL that "duck tape" is actually the correct/original version, and "duct tape" is a modern derivative.
I had always assumed it was the other way round, and some people simply don't know what a duct is so they substitute a similar-sounding, more common word.
- gnfargbl 3y agoMe too! The situation isn't helped by the registration of "Duck Tape" as a trademark for a specific brand of tape -- but that appears not to have happened until 1981, well after both names were in common use: https://trademarks.justia.com/733/00/duck-73300816.html https://trademarks.justia.com/733/00/duck-73300816.html
- p-e-w 3y agoWhat an epic failure by the trademark office. That's as if a company had tried to trademark "Hammer" as a brand name for hammers, and the trademark office just said "Yeah, sure!"
- hulitu 3y agoYou should check Windows. (Total Commander)
- Cthulhu_ 3y agoOr like "Apple" as a brand name for... nevermind
- p-e-w 3y agoThat's different. Apple as a trademark for a computer (or for a record company) is fine. Apple as a trademark for apples... not so.
- throwbadubadu 3y agoJust that the "difference" stops when they now sue any grocery related company having anything like an apple in their logos..
- p-e-w 3y agoAnyone can sue anyone else over anything. If those grocery companies actually fought them in court instead of caving in, Apple would get their ass handed to them.
- lesuorac 3y agoI welcome you to try sueing your neighbor for murdering you. Courts do not accept all lawsuits.
- PhasmaFelis 3y agoNot a great example. After being found innocent in criminal court of murdering his wife, OJ Simpson was famously sued by her family and lost in civil court.
- jcynix 3y agoApple did complain about this logo too, for a bicycle route through Germany's second largest apple growing region: https://apfelroute.nrw/ https://apfelroute.nrw/
- pmarreck 3y agoI used to be mad about this sort of thing too, until I learned that things are incentivized in such a way that encourages companies to at least make a nominal defense of their trademarks in order to maintain an edge in court for actual less-defensible violations of the trademark
- jcynix 3y agoNot to forget "Mail" for an email program. Made searching so much easier ... Not. And never mind the dog named dog (a long time ago, some IEEE journal had a great cartoon where someone painted "house" on their house, "car" on their car, ... you get it. The cartoon illustrated an article about good and bad names for systems.
- jareklupinski 3y agoever since i read the story about the "Max Headroom" guys about how they picked their name (because it was written at the entrance of every parking garage) i think the best way of naming a company is to make it something that is said hundreds of times by people every day "an apple a day" etc... wonder if I can name my comapny "the The company" or "the corporation of Is" haha
- NoZebra120vClip 3y agoIf Max had been killed by a train, he would have taken the name, "Mind the Gap" or perhaps just the very appropriate, "Mind Gap".
- Tijdreiziger 3y ago> wonder if I can name my comapny [sic] "the The company" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaCie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaCie
- jagged-chisel 3y agoThey don’t check trademarks like they (are supposed to) do patents. You want a registration? Here you go. Now someone has to take it to court to see if it stands up.
- lelanthran 3y agoSome countries do patents the same way. They're called non-examining patent offices.
- taneq 3y agoSounds like “duck tape” is adhesive fabric tape (maybe water resistant?) and “duct tape” is shiny metal tape for connecting air ducting? And both names are used informally for either or both types of tape by most of the population? And then so many people post “facts” about a clearly fuzzy issue and proceed to argue about who’s “right”. I’m getting real blegg/rube vibes from the whole argument here.
- yencabulator 3y agoI believe it's professionally called foil tape, or sometimes HVAC tape, to distinguish the two. In product listings, you often see seohacks like "HVAC foil sealer duct tape", because consumers still search for duct tape. https://www.lowes.com/pd/3M-2-5-in-W-x-150-ft-L-HVAC-Tape/4009889 https://www.lowes.com/pd/3M-2-5-in-W-x-150-ft-L-HVAC-Tape/40...
- blooalien 3y ago> "Sounds like “duck tape” is adhesive fabric tape (maybe water resistant?) and “duct tape” is shiny metal tape for connecting air ducting? And both names are used informally for either or both types of tape by most of the population?" This is how I always understood the situation, and then I've recently discovered the issue is further "muddied" by a brand name/trademark "Duck Tape" also, so that's fun...
- JohnFen 3y agoMe too. This explains the thing about "duct tape" that never made any sense to me -- it is not the sort of tape you'd want to use on ducts. But I grew up calling it "gaffer's tape", because it was popularly used by gaffers on film and TV sets.
- schwartzworld 3y agoThey are not the same thing. https://www.findtape.com/videos/gaffers-tape-vs-duct-tape/v5/ https://www.findtape.com/videos/gaffers-tape-vs-duct-tape/v5...
- JohnFen 3y agoI'm talking about how the term was used in the studios I was exposed to. Even in that article, the two definitions are very, very close to being the same thing, and in the studios I was familiar with, both of the tapes the article defines would have been referred to as "gaffer's tape". They're just different varieties of gaffer's tape. It's all just slang, though, so I'm not surprised that the definition varies from crowd to crowd.
- NoZebra120vClip 3y agoJust ask KaTe Bush.
- dreamcompiler 3y agoOr her Usenet fan group. Damn, that neuron hasn't lit up since about 1992.
- qbasic_forever 3y agoIronically the kind of tape you actually use on metal ducting isn't even duck tape, instead it's a thin aluminum foil tape. Duck tape kind of sucks for most temporary applications as it leaves so much residue behind. Gaffer tape is an awesome replacement (although quite a bit pricier).
- PhasmaFelis 3y agoSomeone won an Ig Nobel for research finding that duc(t/k) tape is singularly bad on actual ducts. (Because the adhesive melts at normal heating-duct temperatures.) Their acceptance speech was written in Seussian rhyme. "Do not use duct tape on ducts. Do not use it: t'won't stay stuck."
- booniepepper 3y agoActually I even bring this up in the user-guide https://dt.plumbing/user-guide/tutorial/expectations.html https://dt.plumbing/user-guide/tutorial/expectations.html Also +1 for Gaffer tape, especially for audio/video.
- NoZebra120vClip 3y agoIt would be amusing if this were merely an elaborate citogenesis hoax and the original name was indeed "duct tape", but we're all being gaslighted now.