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Cute 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 a

Cute 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 ago
That 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 ago
  It 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 ago
        The 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 ago
        I 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.
      - jfdkjakjasdf 3y ago
        [flagged]
- mathgeek 3y ago
  > That may not matter to Velcro (TM) Surely you know from reading the article that it's actually "Velcro® Brand". It's easier to follow than most telenovelas. We get it, hook and loop isn’t in our everyday vocabulary, but calling it Velcro (TM) just wouldn’t be true.
  - bitwize 3y ago
    "I am stuck on Band-Aid® brand, 'cause Band-Aid®'s stuck on me!"
paulgb 3y ago
> Nobody's going to move (back?) to "hook-and-loop," especially when the alternative rolls off the tongue a lot better. Cynically, I wonder if they intentionally chose an alternative that they know is a dud. They clearly do benefit from people calling it Velcro, they just can’t have a trademark judge thinking that they want people to call it Velcro. In any case, the video is quite fun and well done. If you take it as a marketing campaign without putting too much weight on the legal strategy, it’s smart and well-executed on their part.
Freak_NL 3y ago
> Nobody's going to move (back?) to "hook-and-loop," […] I do, depending on the audience — I'm fine with hook-and-loop. In general I try to avoid generic trademarks whenever reasonable. In English this takes more effort; in Dutch this isn't too much of an issue. No native Dutch speaker would consider calling an 'ijsdweilmachine' a 'zamboni', for example. It seems that this is very much a US English thing to do.
- lucumo 3y ago
  Nah, it happens in Dutch too. Aspirine for example is commonly used for the generic medicine, even though it's a brand name. (Hell, it's sometimes even used as a general term for a light over-the-counter pain killer like paracetamol.) TomTom is also sometimes used for general navigation systems, though that has been going downhill as fast as the company. "Googlen" is used too in the general sense. Google does have a huge market share, so it's usually correct, but people do "google on Bing".
- zuminator 3y ago
  "Hook-and-loop" is a crappy name for it in English because it conveys an image of someone physically performing a hooking and looping action, like the old-timey hobby, latch hooking[0]. But the action you perform is really just either pressing together or pulling apart. The fact that the mechanism is comprised of tiny hooks and loops isn't really germane to how it works on a macro level. I quite like the "fur tape" mock suggestion in the second video. [0] https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4MDeHa_1C-w https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4MDeHa_1C-w
  - pavon 3y ago
    Yeah. If someone was to say their clothes had hook-and-loop fastener, I would never think of velcro. I would think of the metal hooks and loops (or eyes) on bra straps, old jackets, dress pants, etc.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
Tyr42 3y ago
I know the first robotics competitions exclusively refer to hook tape and loop tape as needed in their specifications.

vanviegen 3y ago

That 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 ago
It 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 ago
      The 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 ago
        I 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.
    - jfdkjakjasdf 3y ago
      [flagged]
mathgeek 3y ago
> That may not matter to Velcro (TM) Surely you know from reading the article that it's actually "Velcro® Brand". It's easier to follow than most telenovelas. We get it, hook and loop isn’t in our everyday vocabulary, but calling it Velcro (TM) just wouldn’t be true.
- bitwize 3y ago
  "I am stuck on Band-Aid® brand, 'cause Band-Aid®'s stuck on me!"

paulgb 3y ago

> Nobody's going to move (back?) to "hook-and-loop," especially when the alternative rolls off the tongue a lot better. Cynically, I wonder if they intentionally chose an alternative that they know is a dud. They clearly do benefit from people calling it Velcro, they just can’t have a trademark judge thinking that they want people to call it Velcro. In any case, the video is quite fun and well done. If you take it as a marketing campaign without putting too much weight on the legal strategy, it’s smart and well-executed on their part.

Freak_NL 3y ago

> Nobody's going to move (back?) to "hook-and-loop," […] I do, depending on the audience — I'm fine with hook-and-loop. In general I try to avoid generic trademarks whenever reasonable. In English this takes more effort; in Dutch this isn't too much of an issue. No native Dutch speaker would consider calling an 'ijsdweilmachine' a 'zamboni', for example. It seems that this is very much a US English thing to do.

lucumo 3y ago
Nah, it happens in Dutch too. Aspirine for example is commonly used for the generic medicine, even though it's a brand name. (Hell, it's sometimes even used as a general term for a light over-the-counter pain killer like paracetamol.) TomTom is also sometimes used for general navigation systems, though that has been going downhill as fast as the company. "Googlen" is used too in the general sense. Google does have a huge market share, so it's usually correct, but people do "google on Bing".
zuminator 3y ago
"Hook-and-loop" is a crappy name for it in English because it conveys an image of someone physically performing a hooking and looping action, like the old-timey hobby, latch hooking[0]. But the action you perform is really just either pressing together or pulling apart. The fact that the mechanism is comprised of tiny hooks and loops isn't really germane to how it works on a macro level. I quite like the "fur tape" mock suggestion in the second video. [0] https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4MDeHa_1C-w https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4MDeHa_1C-w
- pavon 3y ago
  Yeah. If someone was to say their clothes had hook-and-loop fastener, I would never think of velcro. I would think of the metal hooks and loops (or eyes) on bra straps, old jackets, dress pants, etc.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

Tyr42 3y ago

I know the first robotics competitions exclusively refer to hook tape and loop tape as needed in their specifications.