Re: copyrighted names in popular usage

Thank you all very, very much for the additional examples of
American (and other countries') "commercial imprint"

Auntie Beans <WAHowland@aol.com> wrote:

>Kleenex, for the ubiquitous tissues
>Aspirin (which was a trade name when it was first sold, but is no
>longer).
>Saltines, which are properly only made by Nabisco
>Bobcat (for the small machine that digs up your garden), cf also
>Caterpillar, a machine with treads
>Women Scouters of a certain age <G> will recognize another entry
>in this sweepstakes: Kotex, now generic usage for many companies'
>like product
>
>More out there?

Thanks, Wendie! Here's some others which were sent to me privately:

*Frigidaire (brand of refrigerator which became the "generic name"
for all such items)
*Vaseline (to describe anything from motor oil to lip balm)
*"Coke" (one of the descriptive trademarks of the Coca-Cola
company)
*FedEx (Federal Express, which ships packages and letters around
the world. There's other companies now that do the same things,
including the USPS!)
*White Out (small bottles of white ink which was used in our
pre-word processor days to "erase" typos)
*"Hoover" (Grant wrote me to say that in his country, when you want
to "vaccum" you "hoover it"!)
*Formica (a material used back in the late 60s/early 70s as
flooring and later as cabinet and desktop material.)

Again, thanks to all whom sent me personal postings with the
additional examples and thanks to Auntie Beans for compiling the
most common ones sent to me!

Settummanque!

(c) 1998 Mike Walton ("no such thing as strong coffee,...") blkeagle@mninter.net
http://mninter.net/~blkeagle Burnsville, MN 55306-7130 (612) 435-3085
privately at kyblkeagle@aol.com or waltonm@server.kaiserslautern.army.mil
---- FORWARD in service to youth ----

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