I have confidence that Trump has never seen Velcro, and doesn’t know how to use it.
BTW, years ago, we saw a little presentation at Epcot, sponsored by Velcro, and it became very apparent that the entire objective was to convince people to stop calling it Velcro, and call it a Hook & Loop Fastener. Yeah, right, like that’s going to happen.
If a corporation allows their trademark to be used as the general name of the item, like Kleenex or Band-Aid, they can lose that trademark protection, and then competing companies can call their products by your company name, so your marketing is also helping your competition.
So Velcro has to be able to convince a judge that they have made serious efforts to protect their trademark, and paying for advertising space at Epcot to do several presentations a day should help a lot.
We had an Australian colleague back in the 2010s who asked for a band aid during a staff meeting, and everyone just looked at her and said, “Plaster.”
I’m trying to think what brand names have become synonymous with their product here (UK). It used to confuse me when I’d read American books and the characters wound talk about “Xeroxing” stuff. It’s a photocopier! All I can think of is Sellotape, Tip Ex and Blu tack. I think I’m in a minority by saying vacuum instead of hoover though. How can anyone call a Henry a hoover! That’s blasphemy!
Tupperware is the only one out of those that’s common as a generic term here afaik. Never heard anyone call tissue Kleenex here. Roomba maybe, I just don’t know anyone with one 😅
I think this is all Velcro has to do to keep they’re trademark. If you think about it, there’s not much ends they can do besides the occasional PSA, what are they going to do, sue someone who says Velcro? Besides, I think they kind of enjoy trying to make “It’s a hook and loop fastener!” their new slogan.
I have confidence that Trump has never seen Velcro, and doesn’t know how to use it.
BTW, years ago, we saw a little presentation at Epcot, sponsored by Velcro, and it became very apparent that the entire objective was to convince people to stop calling it Velcro, and call it a Hook & Loop Fastener. Yeah, right, like that’s going to happen.
If a corporation allows their trademark to be used as the general name of the item, like Kleenex or Band-Aid, they can lose that trademark protection, and then competing companies can call their products by your company name, so your marketing is also helping your competition.
So Velcro has to be able to convince a judge that they have made serious efforts to protect their trademark, and paying for advertising space at Epcot to do several presentations a day should help a lot.
We had an Australian colleague back in the 2010s who asked for a band aid during a staff meeting, and everyone just looked at her and said, “Plaster.”
I’m trying to think what brand names have become synonymous with their product here (UK). It used to confuse me when I’d read American books and the characters wound talk about “Xeroxing” stuff. It’s a photocopier! All I can think of is Sellotape, Tip Ex and Blu tack. I think I’m in a minority by saying vacuum instead of hoover though. How can anyone call a Henry a hoover! That’s blasphemy!
Roomba
Kleenex
CrockPot
Tupperware
Tupperware is the only one out of those that’s common as a generic term here afaik. Never heard anyone call tissue Kleenex here. Roomba maybe, I just don’t know anyone with one 😅
I think this is all Velcro has to do to keep they’re trademark. If you think about it, there’s not much ends they can do besides the occasional PSA, what are they going to do, sue someone who says Velcro? Besides, I think they kind of enjoy trying to make “It’s a hook and loop fastener!” their new slogan.