Brand names people use as generic terms

Brand, name which have become brand to household name – good or bad? On the one hand, it plays into the hands of the company through the identification in the minds of consumers trademark with the category as a whole. However, there is a certain danger: the transition of the trademark in General use as the name of a product category leads to the cessation of legal protection and opens the possibility of its use by any manufacturer.

The company, whose trademark is threatened by such a danger, use a major advertising and PR efforts to prevent the transfer of the trademark into a household name. A characteristic example is the company Xerox (in English pronounced as “ziroks”), which managed to eradicate a common noun the word “xerox” from the English language, replacing it with a photocopier/photocopy.

Scuba

Light apparatus for breathing under water. Now the trademark Aqua-Lung U. S. Divers belongs.

Aspirin

Acetylsalicylic acid (anti-inflammatory, antipyretic and analgesic drugs). The trademark Bayer.

Airbus

Wide-body passenger aircraft by the French company “Airbus”.

Vaseline

The product of oil refining used in the cosmetic industry. Vaseline is a trademark cosmetics firm Unilever (formerly belonged to the inventors of vaseline Chesebrough-Ponds).

Heroin

This trademark was also invented by the company Bayer. It is believed that the name “heroin” comes from the word heroic – “heroic”. The drug sold as a sedative for coughs and as a replacement for morphine that was addictive. In 1913, the year Bayer stopped production, but the brand will live for a long time. By the way, Novocaine is also a trademark coined as a pain reliever (nepatentovannoe name is procaine).

The recorder

Recording of speech. The Dictaphone company during its history many times changed hands, and now part of Nuance Communications.

Dichlorvos

Any insecticide sprays. Got its name due to the Soviet insecticide “Dichlorvos”.

Jacuzzi

Hot tub. The name comes from a North American company Jacuzzi Inc., which organized mass production. The company was founded in 1917 by immigrants from Italy, by the name Jacuzzi. Still exists today.

Jeep

Jeep – a term which in many countries is called the off-road vehicles. In recent years, Chrysler insists on using the term “SUV”, despite the fact that the word “jeep” was originally a common noun in the English language (slang, formed from the abbreviation GP – general purpose “General purpose”). The word is derived from the abbreviation JP (J. P.) in the name of the car “Willys JP”, released by “jeep” during World war II.

Popsicle

Creamy ice cream on a stick, covered with chocolate icing. Invented in the first half of 1920-ies.

Yo-yo

The toy, a flywheel on the rope. Was named in honor of the Yo-Yo Manufacturing Company (opened in 1928). In 1965, the court concluded that the word “yo-yo” is common.

Cards

Easy car racing. Firm Go-Kart went bankrupt in 1962-m to year.

Sneakers

The word “shoes” is derived from the American Shoe company “Keds”, founded in 1916, the year. Lightweight sports shoes created at first only for sports, soon became everyday shoes for many people. Interestingly, the authors of the name “Sneakers” was nearly called them by another name – “Pads”, but changed his mind in time.

Cognac

A strong alcoholic drink, produced in Cognac in France. As a result, all these brands on the territory of the USSR came to be called cognac.

Coleman

Drawing the harvester. Originally Cullman is a German firm that manufactured them. “The drawing Board” often referred to as “Coleman” regardless of their origin.

Spandex

Lycra is a synthetic fiber used for sewing clothes, which Ortega. Trademark owned by the company Invista.

LEGO

The designers on the basis of colored bricks, wheels, figures of people and other parts from which to assemble models of virtually anything you want. Lego – brand of the LEGO Group of companies.

Band-aid

Medical tape for fastening bandages. From 1921 to 2003-th year, the trademark was owned by Beiersdorf AG, a since 2003 the company BSN medical Gmbh.

Tape

A device for recording sound on tape and play it back. Mark the first commercial device for recording sound on magnetic tape by German company AEG (liquidated in 1997), released in 1935-m to year.

Multilok

Car lock high reliability. Firm Mul-T-Lock still exists.

Revolver

The model of a revolver created by Leon Nagant (Belgium, 1892). Due to the civil war, the name “revolver” was fixed for any gun (not just system of a Revolver). Now, the word almost lost General status.

Nylon

Nylon, a trademark of DuPont. Became common to refer to fabrics of various types.

Cologne

From the French brand of “Eau de Cologne”, literally, Cologne water. Perfumes for men. Is a trademark owned by the heirs of Johann Farina.

Diapers

Trademark of Procter & Gamble. Disposable diapers with wrogowie substance. “Diapers” called all the diapers and not just products from P&G. currently, the brand has replaced the word “nappy”, it was of little use.

Gramophone

Compact portable gramophone company “Pathe”. Accordingly phonograph records to him wore the official name of the “disk Party.”

Foam

Trading name of flexible polyurethane foam. Its main supplier, the Soviet Union was the Norwegian firm “Porolon”.

Port

Special fortified wine produced in the North of Portugal (near Douro river). Although by international standards the port wine can only be called appropriate fortified wine from Portugal, Ukraine, and other countries also produce wines with the same name.

Coercion

Kerosene burner for cooking. The trademark of the company Primus AB.

Risograph

Duplicator, copy machine, using the method of screen printing. Trademark of Riso Kagaku Corporation.

Scotch

The word is derived from the English and Scotch tape “Scotch tape” is a trademark roll of adhesive tape of 3M Corporation. Formally, a Scotch can be called only by the tape company 3M, so “Scotch” – brand this company.

Superglue

Glue sets up fast. The owner of the brand – firm Super Glue Corp – still exists today.

TTY

Device printing the text on the ribbon. Firm Teletype Co. still exists today, specializiruetsya on the navigation apparatus.

Teletext

The transmission system of structured text pages parallel to the standard analog television signal. Firm Teletext Ltd. still exists today, specializiruetsya on satellite TV.

Thermos

Vessel d South Africa, intended for the insulation of food. Trademark of Thermos Gmbh. In many countries, recognized as a household name and has lost the status of a trademark.

Teflon

Teflon – trademark of DuPont. Used as a nonstick coating for pans.

Antifreeze

A brand of antifreeze made in USSR. The word “antifreeze” is formed from: TOS – technology of organic synthesis, and “OL” – the chemical nomenclature of substances is the end shows what we are talking about alcohol (ethylene glycol is a dibasic alcohol).

The toilet

Many people mistakenly believe that a familiar word “toilet” is an abbreviation of “universal bowl”. During Soviet times, these sinks were supplied by the Spanish firm Unitas (Unity), hence the name. “Unitas” toilets produced from 1909.

Hairdryer

Initially these products for drying and styling was produced only by the firm Foen. The first dedicated device for drying hair, the progenitor of the modern hair dryers, appeared in 1900 in Germany. The name “dryer”, included in many languages associated with the registered mark Foen, and the word “clock” means a warm Alpine wind.

Pen

From the trademark Flo-Master felt felt-tip pen.

Photoshop

Graphic editor Adobe Photoshop. With “Photoshop” become associated with any computer processing of the image regardless of using a graphical editor it is produced.

The Fruit “Kiwi”

The original name of the fruit is Chinese gooseberry. In New Zealand, this fruit was sold by the supplier under the brand name invented by Kiwi.

Lollipop

Now the name any Lollipop. Trademark of Perfetti van Melle.

Champagne

Light white sparkling wine from the province of champagne.