that said - are you saying that a solid name like International Business Machines is gonna suffer from trademark misuse because it doesn't appropriate some "fanciful" garbage in its spelling?
I should form a company called InternashnalBiz-NizMasheenz! just to test this hypothesis.
No, not saying that at all. That's part of the reason why I said my comments were oversimplified. The name International Business Machines has undoubtedly acquired a strong secondary meaning (especially in the truncated form "IBM") such that if you took a survey (which is very common in trademark litigation), surely over 95% of the respondents would associate IBM with computers. A descriptive name can acquire distinctive meaning over time if people come to associate it with a particular company or product.
Likewise, a distinctive word can
lose its trademark status if the mark's owner doesn't protect it. That's why Xerox ran those ad campaigns to get people to stop saying "go xerox this" and the like; it's also a reason why Johnson & Johnson changed the Band-Aid advertising jingle to say "Band-Aid Brand." Perhaps one of the best-known examples is Thermos. Thermos GmbH is a corporation, but they didn't take action to protect the name when other manufacturers used it to refer to their own insulated vacuum drink bottles, and in the 1960s the word "thermos" as to such containers was found to be a generic term (i.e., not one that can be trademarked) in the United States. However, Thermos GmbH still exists and makes other products, as to which they can still claim trademark protection in the Thermos name and logo (for example, they make a line of grills commonly used for football tailgates).
I'd suggest that the word "Kleenex" (a trademark owned by Kimberly-Clark) has probably become genericized because so many people use it to refer to facial tissues generally regardless of brand.
BTW, regarding the "Good to Go!" ETC system, I seem to recall that a few years back Taco Bell used that as an advertising tagline (
Car and Driver promptly made fun of it by saying Taco Bell would make your digestive system "good to go"). I don't know if they ever tried to claim it as a slogan; if they did, that'd be an example of usage in a particular industry (fast food) that's not likely to be confused with another (ETC).
I've been surprised at how many blog comments and such I've seen in which people refer to E-ZPass as "Easy Pass" or the like.
But anyway, take California's "FasTrak" as an example. "Fast Track" is hardly a term that's ever likely to acquire the sort of distinctive meaning that lets you use it as a brand name. So they change the spelling under the theory that the name
used in that form might acquire a secondary meaning associated with California's toll collection system.
yes, I remember all the random logos like Star and NYCE that were more heavily promoted during the 80s. I had no idea that their naming wandered into sillyland like that.
that said, despite all my attention, I still do not know what the difference is between an ATM card, a debit card, and a check card - or why any, or all, of those come with a credit card processing logo. for example, why does my bank "debit card", which I do not use anywhere but at the ATM, have a Visa logo?
A check card is basically a form of debit card that may be more widely accepted than just a debit card. For example, at many universities a student's meal plan is encoded on the student ID card. Sometimes you can just put a specific amount of money on the ID and use that to pay for your meals. That's an example of a debit card (because it "debits" your account for the amount of each purchase), but it cannot normally be used anywhere other than at that university. A check card got its name because it draws money from your checking account—instead of writing a check, you swipe your card. It then debits your checking account for the amount of your purchase. A lot of "check cards" have the VISA or MasterCard logo, meaning you can use them anywhere VISA or MasterCard are accepted, unlike a "debit card" that might be restricted to a particular place.
An ATM card is also a debit card. Once upon a time you were able to use a particular bank's ATM card only at that bank's ATMs; later certain ATM networks developed (you can sometimes see these logos on the back of your card, such as "Honor" or "Cirrus") to allow you to use your ATM card at other banks in the same network. The idea of the VISA or MasterCard-branded "check card" came later and allowed you to use your ATM card at stores, gas stations, etc.
I remember when Sovran Bank (one of the forerunners to Bank of America) had "Cashflow" machines and the ATM card had a "Cashflow" logo. You couldn't use it anywhere but Sovran Bank, or later NationsBank when they merged with NCNB and changed their name.
I almost never use my debit cards to pay for anything if I can avoid it, other than occasionally at the car wash (and that primarily because the car wash I use doesn't like my normal VISA card for some reason). I use American Express instead, pay it off at the end of the month as required, and accrue miles. It also makes keeping my bank account reconciled a lot easier. I used to use a debit card a lot and invariably the transactions all posted in a different order from the one I had recorded and it took forever to verify them every month.
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Topic: Which states use what electronic toll technology. (Read 20856 times)