How to prevent trademark genericide
“Genericide – (n.) the process by which a brand name loses its distinctive identity as a result of being used to refer to any product or service of its kind.”
When a trademark becomes generic, it loses its legal protection, as trademarks are meant to identify and distinguish the source of goods or services.
To safeguard their trademarks, brand owners must proactively implement strategies to prevent genericide. This article explores various strategies to prevent genericide of trademarks.
1. Use the trademark as a trademark and adopt correct grammar
A trademark should be used as an adjective describing a noun, and not as a noun itself. For example, it is a Hoover vacuum cleaner and not a hoover.
The trademark must not be used as a verb. For example, you do not xerox a document or google a term. You make a photocopy using a Xerox® copier or you conduct an internet search using the Google search engine.
Trademarks should not be used in a plural form. Say “Lego bricks” and not “legos”.
You can also add the word “brand” after the trademark, instead of the descriptor—for example, the John Deere brand.
Mattel seems to have done this correctly by referring to Barbie dolls. The trademark Barbie® is used as an adjective with the product descriptor, ie, dolls. Also, the word “dolls” is used in the plural form and not the trademark Barbie.
Use the trademark correctly on the packaging, marketing materials, internal and external documents. It is also recommended to use the product description in agreements with third parties.
2. Educate the public and consumers
It is important to enlighten and educate the public about what trademarks are and why they matter. Trademarks identify and distinguish products or services of a particular brand. By educating consumers about this definition, they can understand the role of trademarks and the importance of it.
Conduct educational or awareness campaigns to inform the public about the correct use of the trademark as a brand name, emphasising that it represents a specific product or service, not the entire category.
Companies should focus on educating the consumer that their mark is the source of the product, not the product itself, and should not be used as a common noun. For example, Velcro Companies released an amusing video across social media asking consumers, through the medium of a musical-style song, to say “hook and loop” and not “VELCRO” as the generic term. By doing so, they highlighted that Velcro is a specific brand and not a generic term for all hook-and-loop fasteners.
Xerox also ran advertisements in the newspapers by reminding the public to “photocopy” documents instead of “xeroxing” them, and to produce "photocopies" instead of "xeroxes", and slogans like, “If you use Xerox the way you use ‘zipper’, our trademark could be left wide open”; and “If you use Xerox the way you use ‘aspirin’, we get a headache”.
In the late nineties, the owner of the LEGO mark conducted a campaign to persuade customers to call its products "LEGO blocks" or "LEGO toys".
3M had a notice telling its customers that Post-it is a registered trademark, and must be used as an adjective, followed by the noun "software notes".
