11 ms·
Don't Say Velcro (2017)
- Zekio 3y agothey should've had a longer name if they didn't want to become a noun
- voidee 3y ago“Still confused?” LOL, yes!
- neals 3y agoSo, you can either try to change what's in the vocabulary of 300 million people for generations. Or change your brand name. They chose the first. Interesting.
- OliveMate 3y agoThat's trade mark laws for you. If you don't try and protect your trade mark at every opportunity it can be stripped from you and every Tom, Dick, and Harry can put out whatever they want with your name/term. I get it, but still, that's the law for you. The most of us will still say Velcro because it's what we all know it as. Related: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_genericized_trademarks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_genericize...
- bradley13 3y agoReminds me of the dark ages, when Xerox was so dominant in the copier market that people used their brand as a noun and a verb. They were threatened with loss of their trademark, because it had become so generic. So they had a massive publicity campaign, asking people to say "copy" instead of "xerox". Is this a uniquely US thing? In the UK, people always say "hoover" instead of "vacuum".
- orthoxerox 3y ago> Is this a uniquely US thing? No, in Russia people have been xerring documents since photocopiers appeared there.
- richie_adler 3y ago"Xerring"? Not "xeroxing"?
- antender 3y agoYep, in Russian xerring (ксерить) sounds way better because "ox" part is rarely used in native words.
- richie_adler 3y agoTIL. Thanks!
- miki123211 3y agoPolish does the same thing, ksero for the machine, kserować for the verb (wać is a somewhat common verb ending for the infinitive).
- notpushkin 3y agoUsername checks out, haha.
- culebron21 3y agoYou should add that kserokopiya (xerocopy) has been in laws for ages. Like "to have the car insurance original or xerocopy".
- cassianoleal 3y agoIn Brazil, "xerox" is synonym with copy and is used in pretty much any context where the latter word makes sense (even if it's not a copy of a document). The verb "xerocar" derives from it, and even appears in dictionaries. https://www.dicio.com.br/xerocar/ https://www.dicio.com.br/xerocar/ https://dicionario.priberam.org/xerocar https://dicionario.priberam.org/xerocar
- EvanAnderson 3y agoAlways a good time to share this: https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000002847155/verbatim-what-is-a-photocopier.html https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000002847155/verbat...
- lucasoshiro 3y agoThis happens a lot here in Brazil. Some brands are so famous that they are synonyms of some products, e. g. Gillette (razor blade), Bom Bril (steel wool), Insulfim (window film) and so on. Xerox is a curious thing here. It is a so strong synonym to photocopy that almost no one remembers that it is a brand (at least, I don't remember seeing in person any Xerox device). It is so strong that xerox also means the shops were the photocopies are made. Just place Google Maps over São Paulo, search for "xerox" and see what happens
- wazoox 3y agoIn France many trademarks became generic names: Frigidaire and its abbreviated form frigo is the standard name for a refrigerator (nobody ever says "réfrigérateur"). Kleenex is the standard word meaning "paper handkerchief". Sopalin is the standard word for "roll of paper towels". Many automotive parts are called from a brand name too : "Delco" is the only name an igniter is ever called; a flexible black tube is always called a "Durit" whatever its brand. A modular pre-made, stackable non permanent housing module is an "Algeco". A bus stop with a roof is called an Abribus. A supermarket trolley is almost always called a Caddie. A credit card is universally called a "Carte Bleue" or CB, to the point that people will happily use the nonsensical "CB" acronym for a credit card when speaking English. Cellophane is called Cellophane. I don't even know of an another word for it :)
- rzzzt 3y agoEscalator was a trademark registered by Otis, the company that made those stairs-go-up devices: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_genericized_trademarks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_genericize...
- tuetuopay 3y agoDon't forget - bic for a ball pen - scotch for duct tape - kalxon for a car honk - rubalise for the white-and-red tape used in streets - mobylette for that very specific old style scooter - pédalo for the floating thingy on the beaches with pedals As for cellophane I always called it "film plastique" or just "plastique", but this varies a lot from region to region and family to family. As for Durit, it's actually a bit more interesting as the brand was genericised to "durite". It's so prevalent that we have expressions using it like "péter une durite" as a way to say "going crazy".
- firebat45 3y ago>Cellophane is called Cellophane. This floor is made of floor
- Biganon 3y agoI'm Swiss (French speaking) and I call cellophane "saran", which... is another brand!
- frozenlettuce 3y agoIn Brazil it is still used as a photocopy term (much easier to say "tirar uma xerox" than "tirar uma fotocópia"). Other common terms that we use that came from brands: shaving razor -> gilete (instead of "lâmina de barbear") chewing gum -> chiclete (instead of "goma de mascar") cotton swab -> cotonete (a J&J brand, instead of "haste flexível") polystyrene -> isopor (a Knauf brand, instead of "esferovite" or "poliestireno expandido")
- bitwize 3y agoI think the "defend it or lose it" nature of trademarks may be a US wrinkle, but I'm not sure. During the 90s, Nintendo popularized the use of the term "game console" to avoid people's moms calling their competitors "Nintendos". Like Atari before them, their name had become synonymous with video games in general, something they wanted to avoid in order to protect their trademark. There are references to "consoles" before this happened, dating back to the early 80s, but in everyday language most kids called them "video game systems" or by their brand names (Atari, Nintendo, Sega, etc.).
- Dwedit 3y agoThe manuals for the NES, SNES, and N64 never once used the term "Game Console". They exclusively called it the "Control Deck". It's not until the GameCube (2001) that they finally refer to the system as a "Console" in the user manual. Does anyone know any people who actually called their consoles "Control Decks"?
- bitwize 3y agoAgain, Control Deck was how they branded their own products. In the 90s they ran advertisements advising people to refer to their competitors' products as game consoles. I don't remember anyone using the term "Control Deck" to refer to the console. Nintendo also referred to their cartridges as Game Paks, another term not used outside official Nintendo materials (including Nintendo Power). Everybody just called them cartridges, carts, or just games. It kind of reminds me of how Texas Instruments tried to get "Command Module" over as a term for their TI-99/4(A) cartridges. It didn't go over. Oddly enough, the official TI-ism for the 99/4A unit itself was "console".
- Dwedit 3y agoThe famous 1990 ad saying "There's no such thing as a Nintendo" https://images.nintendolife.com/16326a1099812/no-such-thing-as-a-nintendo.large.jpg https://images.nintendolife.com/16326a1099812/no-such-thing-... does not mention "Consoles". Do you know of any 90s Nintendo ads that do use the word Console?
- grishka 3y agoIn Russian it did stick as a word for photocopiers (ксерокс), copies (ксерокопия) and the act of copying (ксерить, ксерокопировать) to this day. At this point it's more of a legend, but it goes that the word we use for toilet, унитаз, is the brand name of the company that sold toilets in 19th century. Scotch is one brand of adhesive tape but we call all such tape "скотч".
- kevin_thibedeau 3y agoOther than ксерокс, the other uses can be considered valid applications of the Greek root words.
- api_or_ipa 3y agoIn Canada an in-sink garbage disposal unit is called a Garburator. I recently learned that’s a brand name of said devices. I’ve lived in the states for a while now, but I’m entirely unsure what everyone calls them down here.
- jsymolon 3y agoGoing to have to xerox this for my wall.
- mcphage 3y agoSomeone ought to give them a kleenex for all of their boo-hooing.
- shafyy 3y agoSome young folks probably need to google what xeroxing means
- theGeatZhopa 3y agoBut after the changing pampers, please.
- EvanAnderson 3y agoIt is the Cadillac of search engines, after all-- a real doozy.
- peterleiser 3y agoI laughed so hard that I needed a bandaid.
- CharlesW 3y agoWhoa buddy, let's do a quick zoom first.
- verandaguy 3y agoCute attempt, but Velcro/velcro has already been genericised for decades at this point. Nobody's going to move (back?) to "hook-and-loop," especially when the alternative rolls off the tongue a lot better.
- vanviegen 3y agoThat may not matter to Velcro (TM). As long as they're publicly making attempts to defend their trademark, perhaps that is enough for them to keep legal rights to it.
- boringuser2 3y agoIt doesn't read like an honest attempt, it reads like a tongue-in-cheek parody of one. Turns out judges used to be lawyers and are pretty good at reading between the lines, too.
- fdsalkjlkj 3y ago[flagged]
- boringuser2 3y ago"Ridiculous", really? Does my statement meet the threshold of ridiculous? Funnily enough, I've never seen a funny legal brief.
- lucumo 3y agoThe Onion filed one: https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-293/242292/20221003125252896_35295545_1-22.10.03%20-%20Novak-Parma%20-%20Onion%20Amicus%20Brief.pdf https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-293/242292/2022...
- boringuser2 3y agoI think that if Velcro's effort were explicitly comparable to The Onion, it wouldn't really help their case. That being said, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote some funny opinions, but he was a literal Supreme Court Justice and could do as he pleased.
- VoodooJuJu 3y agoI can't tell if this is good marketing disguised as a joke or if it's just mega-out-of-touch cringe.
- esprehn 3y agoThe former, but also it's CYA.
- asylteltine 3y agoThis is literally a psyop. This is free marketing. Don’t fall for it.
- pard68 3y agoThis is humor, right?
- mycodendral 3y agoyes, a cheeky CYA
- tunnuz 3y agoI’m assuming this is meant to be a joke.
- mingus88 3y agoNo I think this is a good faith effort to protect their trademark It won’t work, but legally if they don’t make an effort then they lose it by default.
- liquidise 3y ago(2017)
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 3y agoSimilarly, many people who own vacuum cleaners which aren’t Hoover-branded still own hoovers and many chocolate and creme sandwich cookies which aren’t Oreo-branded are still oreos. I think some people in the US will refer to drinks which I call “soda” as “coke”. Like a “Sprite-coke” if you don’t want a cola. This must be a page for VELCRO®’s lawyers to point to during relevant lawsuits because the argument otherwise seems like a lost cause.
- 1f60c 3y ago(2017), according to https://eu.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/09/26/velcros-video-implores-consumers-say-hook-and-loop/705667001/ https://eu.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/09/26/velcros-video... They're trying to avoid genericide. I think if they didn't do this, they could actually lose the trademark.
- dathinab 3y agobut can they really stop it? I mean in most cases where a term becomes "generic" it has been long time generic before at some point someone bothers to make a study/lawsuit which declares it as generic as result. For example pretty much everyone I know uses Lego as a generic term and knows about not Lego produced bricks. Currently Lego still managed to defend the trademark but IMHO it's just a matter of time until it becomes generic because it already defacto is and the only reason they still avoid it becoming generic is protectionism.
- bombcar 3y agoI suspect as long as they don’t allow competitors to genericize the trademark they’ll be ok. After all there are regions where all soda is called “coke” and that trademark hasn’t been lost.
- vel0city 3y agoI live in a region where lots of people refer to most colas as "coke", but you bet if I start selling cola in a red can with "Coke" on it I'm going to have some lawyers showing up at my door.
- JohnFen 3y agoThis. I don't think that "coke" on its own can be trademarked because it's an actual common word (a form of coal). The trademark would have to be the word in combination with other aspects that make it distinctive. The color scheme, or font, or associated decorative elements, for instance. "Coca-Cola", however, is distinctive on its own and is trademarkable as such.
- CodinM 3y agoah let me get into my jeep to get some xeroxes of my opinion and drive to give them some kleenexes
- jbverschoor 3y agoAmericans tend to use brand names instead of the words for things.. Xerox, Velcro etc... We call it klittenband.. tangle band. Or tangle strip
- dchest 3y agoNot only Americans, xerox is a word for copier in other languages. In Mongolia, it's canon instead. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_genericized_trademarks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_genericize...
- TobyTheDog123 3y agoVelcro!
- nmstoker 3y agoOh goodness, will this hasten the velcropolipse? I fear that whilst velcroing items I will forget the need to not mention velcro as in to velcro or the thing velcro itself and the words the VELCRO™ lawyers said about not saying velcro will slip from my mind like poorly velcroed shoes. Does anyone else think their use of velcro in casual conversation will be affected? Has anyone tried to use velcro and suffered any fall out? I might have to Google it.
- colesantiago 3y agov e l c r o (r)
- merelysounds 3y agoRelated, Google wrote a blog post[1] on a similar topic in 2006. As far as I know they've successfully avoided genericide and a 2017 lawsuit[2] ended with a ruling in their favor. Also, unsurprisingly, Adobe has a whole section in their trademarks page about photoshopping[3]: > Correct: The image was enhanced with Adobe® Photoshop® Elements software. > Incorrect: The image was photoshopped. [1]: https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/do-you-google.html https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/do-you-google.html [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_litigation#Genericide_of_%22google%22 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_litigation#Genericide_o... [3]: https://www.adobe.com/legal/permissions/trademarks.html https://www.adobe.com/legal/permissions/trademarks.html
- throwaway494749 3y agoBe careful what you wish for. I've noticed that young people, who have to use Bing and Ecosia at school (or go straight to TikTok and rarely use search engines) no longer use Google as a verb. They say "search it up" instead of "Google it". Google (the word) is going from generic to specific/proprietary again.
- Faaak 3y ago> Correct: The image was enhanced with Adobe® Photoshop® Elements software. Dumb question: how would you pronounce this if you were saying it ? Specifically the ® symbol ?
- PopAlongKid 3y ago"R in circle". Just like copyright is "C in circle".
- HL33tibCe7 3y ago> Us lawyers have to protect our people. Using the VELCRO® trademark properly allows us to protect the integrity of the VELCRO® Brand and our trademark rights, and protect consumers from purchasing products incorrectly identified as VELCRO® Brand products. It’s, you know, the right thing to do. One of my least favourite thing is when massive corporations use this kind of cutesy language. To me, it brings to mind the wolf from Little Red Riding hood wearing her grandmother's clothes. If the sentence was honest, it'd be something more like: > Us lawyers are paid money to facilitate the VELCRO megacorp to make even more money. If you threaten the megacorp by misusing our trademark, we will sue you into the ground, no matter who you are, and regardless of whether it's the "right thing" or not.
- burrish 3y ago>Incorrect: I just bought some velcro shoes! >Correct: I just bought some self-fastening shoes! I will never say that
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Findecanor 3y agoIn many other languages it is called "burdock tape" after the plant whose burrs was the inspiration behind the invention of velcro.
- tmtvl 3y agoI'm just gonna call it "burtape" from now on. Easier to say than "hook-and-loop".
- mrangle 3y agoImagine launching a campaign aimed at reducing brand dominance. My n=1 experience is that when shopping for "hook and loop" strips online, I make sure that they are actual Velcro. Beyond useless, I think that the attempt is misguided.
- docdeek 3y agoNo problem in France - the generic term for Velcro here is 'scratch'.
- entropie 3y agoKlettverschluss in germany. Klett comes from Arctium a plant with similar features (I guess) and verschluss is like the english term fastener or clasp.
- dvh 3y agoSuchý zips in Slovak (lit. Dry zipper)
- jraph 3y agoMany people in France say velcro though.
- NikkiA 3y agoWhich is ironic given 'velcro' is a deliberate portmanteau of 'velours crochet'
- bee_rider 3y agoIt is an interesting page because * on the face of it, they are reminding people to not use their brand in a generic sense * they also loaded it up with cutesy language. Maybe it is the most “meme-able” stuff legal would approve. “Don’t talk about me” is the best way to get talked about.
- herghost 3y agoCompare with "Prosecco" recently starting an advertising campaign on the London Underground[0] telling people to stop calling whatever generic, non-region protected sparkling wine they're drinking "Prosecco" because Prosecco is DOC protected. Seems to me (despite the almost certainly valid legal points in the comments here) that the Velcro one is a bit tongue-in-cheek whereas I was slightly taken aback at how direct and earnest the Prosecco one seemed. Net result will be the same though, I suspect. [0] https://euroweeklynews.com/2023/12/26/italy-warns-britons-to-stop-calling-sparkling-wine-prosecco/ https://euroweeklynews.com/2023/12/26/italy-warns-britons-to...
- elaus 3y agoI think the two videos from Velcro really hit the right spot between fun and educational. I started watching the first video with a large amount of skepticism (soulless company paying millions to create viral video about something I couldn't care less about), but I really couldn't help but like both the videos and the company itself more now. Well done, I guess.
- blagie 3y agoPro-tip: I work very hard to help make generic the trademarks of corporations I think are evil (and vice-versa for ones I like). It's a free, cheap, and easy way to fight back. To the great annoyance of many, I even usually google for things with DuckDuckGo. :)
- brianbest101 3y ago[dead]
- elmimmo 3y agoTransformers do not transform but convert in Hasbro’s marketing and licensed materials, and strictly speaking they’re not even supposed to be Transformers but Transformers robots (which grammatically is wrong, but alas). Except, for whatever valid reason, inside the fiction, where Transformers becomes a perfectly valid noun they refer themselves with and they do transform, not convert, all day long. I don’t get it.
- bitwize 3y agoThe decision to avoid use of the verb "to transform" is recent (2000s or 2010s), and probably due to legal troubles Hasbro's lawyers don't want to get into again. Recent Transformers media do eschew the usage of "transform" as a verb, preferring "convert" or "change form" instead. The part (organ?) that Cybertronians have that facilitates changing shape also had its name changed, from "transformation cog" in G1 to "conversion cog" in the War for Cybertron game. And Optimus Prime saying "Autobots, transform and roll out!" has gone the way of Mario saying "Yahoo!" (Nintendo feared trademark suits from the internet company Yahoo!). The funny thing is, back in the days when Transformers transformed, their rivals the GoBots converted.
- pointlessone 3y ago> you diminish the importance of our brand and our lawyers lose their insert fastening sound. I understand why they’re doing it and maybe in 2017 general mood was a bit different but right now there are people who would absolutely love to diminish the importance of a brand or two first thing in the morning even before their coffee. And they’re giving them ideas for free.
- Lornedon 3y agoI'm not a lawyer, and I'm confused. Do they lose their trademark if it gets used generically, or if they don't try to prevent that? Because common sense would imply the former, but then this video would just be a big admission that they already lost, no? "Everywhere you go, you see this scratchy, hairy fastener and you say 'Hey, that's velcro!'"
- KMnO4 3y agoYou lose the right to defend your trademark if you don't make an effort to defend your trademark. If 3M comes out with their own hook-and-loop fastener and calls it "3M Velcro", the court would say "you can't sue 3M over this since you clearly don't care when people say Velcro". This whole video is just to establish precedent.
- JohnFen 3y agoYou have to remember the purpose of trademarks -- they aren't primarily intended to benefit the trademark holder, they're intended as a consumer protection thing. The idea is that you can rely on the name/packaging/etc. to actually indicate that the product was made by who you think it was made by. If a trademark becomes generic enough, then it stops serving that purpose and so is no longer able to serve its protective function.
- jeffrallen 3y agoIn French c'est "le scratch". Better than hook and loop! PS: https://youtu.be/ZLWMQLMiTPk?feature=shared&t=111 https://youtu.be/ZLWMQLMiTPk?feature=shared&t=111
- gumby 3y ago« Velcro » is just roughly short for “hook (and) loop” in French (Velour et crochet — velvet and hook). So why not use the abbreviation? Trademarking it is like trademarking any common word, like Windows. Actually I do have some sympathy; from working at Xerox I somehow was convinced to say “photocopy” (not that anyone uses either expression any more). And I always say “web search” because I don’t want to endorse or encourage the use of google.
- cratermoon 3y agoHoLo?
- ranting-moth 3y agoNo, they're usually high.
- sangnoir 3y ago> So why not use the abbreviation? HooLoo? I think another company may object to that name.
- fragmede 3y agoHulu, the video streaming company, doesn't do much in the textiles/garmeny industry, and would have little trademark claim to the name used in a different industry.
- Tagbert 3y agoUnless they were Monster Incorporated, makers of expensive, gold-plated cables with a history of seeing anyone who uses “monster” in a product name regardless of commercial industry.
- rel 3y agoReminds me tangentially of this great recreation of a deposition: https://youtu.be/PZbqAMEwtOE https://youtu.be/PZbqAMEwtOE
- FrustratedMonky 3y agoGreat. Hope this is real. I'd be impressed if the real lawyers did this. There was a follow up video, also good https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLWMQLMiTPk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLWMQLMiTPk
- alentred 3y agoFunnily enough, even though vel-cro is a combination of two words in French (velour crochet), most people in France call it just "scratch" (as per the sound it makes).
- tuetuopay 3y agoI'm french and you taught me something today (velours-crochet), as I always called it scratch.
- kube-system 3y agoThat’s pretty damn creative as far as trademarks go. “Apple” and “Windows” were just borrowed completely.
- xbar 3y agoVelcro that. I intend to velcro velcro for the velcroing future.
- Nifty3929 3y agoI think this is one of those weird cases where they have to tell you the opposite of what they actually want, for legal reasons. I think VELCRO(r) actually DOES want everybody to use their name the way it is commonly used - it's good for brand recognition. But legally, retaining control of their brand requires them to clearly defend it from such generic use. This post is an example of that. If someone is using their brand in a way they don't want (like on a product not made by them), they can win a trademark case in court by pointing to posts like this.
- acyou 3y agoDing ding ding. They even throw their lawyers under the bus, saying that they are discouraging use of the term Velcro for the purpose of legal defense of their valuable Velcro trademark. Did this gain any real traction at any point?
- janci 3y agoSame as LEGO brick controversy. Supposedly the bricks are not Legos, LEGOs and certainly not legos. At least per their legal dept.
- ajcp 3y agoI think it's a North American thing to call anything LEGO "Legos", denoting that it is a thing made up of many pieces of "Lego" right? In Europe if you pointed to a LEGO set or a pile of LEGO pieces every response you'd get would be "that's LEGO". But then again in Europe, or at least in Germany, we had many different brands to choose from for the same kind of construction play, whereas in North America it seemed like it's just LEGO.
- zdimension 3y agoOne in France (or other European French-speaking countries) would say "des Legos" to refer to a bunch of Lego pieces or Lego sets. "Un Lego" would mean a single Lego brick.
- qingcharles 3y ago
- 8jef 3y agoAnd that explains why lawyers will never get love or sympathy from most living creatures. They'll always have to sue for getting any kind of consideration. In my ideal world, they don't exist at all, or they're called mediators. But let's be clear: this is an ad. And ad folks are the worst, worst than lawyer, just a notch above dirt. And btw, not buying velcro products anymore.
- hx8 3y agoWhat exactly is so awful about this advertisement that it will cause you to never buy a product? It seemed super normal to me, do you just never buy products that advertise, or buy products that advertise using actors playing a lawyer?
- cratermoon 3y agoThat ship has (mostly) sailed, but companies have lost their brand rights for failing to police uses. Did you know Aspirin was once a brand name for the acetylsalicylic acid product Bayer invented?
- aidenn0 3y agoFor those who haven't seen it before: If both surfaces you are fastening together are (relatively) rigid, then mushroom-head fasteners (e.g. 3M Dual Lock) have many advantages over hook-and-loop fasteners.
- 1-6 3y agoOk, I’ll just find a hippier word to use to describe “hook and loop” so Velcro will lose their relevance.
- CannisterFlux 3y agoIn Spanish it's officially "velcro" from the French abbreviation https://dle.rae.es/velcro https://dle.rae.es/velcro and no alternative. About as generic as you get. Speaking of velcro shoes, I inherited some velcro fastening trainers because my eldest kid felt he'd grown out of using them (he has the same size foot as me). I feel very self conscious wearing them in public because nobody wears velcro trainers. In the 6 months I've had them, I've been keeping an eye out in a busy European city, and I've seen just 1 person and that was a sort of work uniform shoe some guy had. Nobody has "fashion" velcro shoes. They do look kinda goofy I suppose.
- satisfice 3y agoI'm going to say it more now.
- compiler-guy 3y agoIf you've never seen the video ad that went along with this campaign, it's hilarious and worth watching, as is the follow up. I love the good humor about the whole thing. And it has made their campaign stick in ways that other similar campaigns have not. https://youtu.be/rRi8LptvFZY?si=nfzpn2DDngeyyETN https://youtu.be/rRi8LptvFZY?si=nfzpn2DDngeyyETN https://youtu.be/ZLWMQLMiTPk?si=28csS65KpQyoFrEn https://youtu.be/ZLWMQLMiTPk?si=28csS65KpQyoFrEn
- block_dagger 3y agoImagine if OpenAI had named ChatGPT something that rolled off the tongue like Velcro. Missed opportunity.
- layer8 3y agoIt’s still memorable in at least one language: https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/158e8os/in_case_anyone_didnt_know/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/158e8os/in_case_an...
- whatgoodisaroad 3y agoThere's a straussian dynamic at work here where the company wants to informally encourage generic use of their brand, but must also formally defend proper use of their brand for legal reasons. Courts need to see you at least appear to defend yourself.
- ivanche 3y agoIn Serbia we never say Velcro but thistle stripe (burdock stripe). Interestingly enough, we say gilette for razor and digitron for calculator.
- msikora 3y agoProbably different with Velcro, but in the case of Google wouldn't the term "google it" which just really means "search it on the internet" be extremely helpful? Helpful in ways very different from velcro or gilette (in many countries generic term for 'razor')
- readyplayernull 3y agoTrademarks that have conflict with common use words should have their vowels randomized: crovel, eppla, zonama, tema, etc.