I remember learning that trademarks that have been genericized (like Band-Aid, Popsicle, Velcro, Clorox, etc) are at risk of losing their trademark or copyright.
Can someone explain to me how exactly does this work? Cause i never really understood this
Trademarks aren’t supposed to be a gift to the company, they’re a service to the public to help them know what they’re buying so they don’t get tricked into buying a counterfeit. If nobody expects velcro to come from one specific manufacturer anymore, that trademark isn’t serving the public and there’s no reason for it to be protected.
The Band-Aid company really really wants people to go to the store to buy some band-aids, but then only one box says “Band-Aid” on it so they buy that one because they don’t know what “adhesive bandages” are. They love that, it’s just illegal. So they have to make sure to run enough “BAND-AID™ BRAND ADHESIVE BANDAGES” ads to have a defense in court that no reasonable person is buying Band-Aid because they think that’s the only band-aid in the store. But they still want as many unreasonable people doing that as possible.