Generic Trademarks

Today is the last day of the Month of April, so it means that we will have our Monthly Report today. The Factorium is going to start another fact series that will span the 7 weeks of my summer holiday and is named Summer Extravaganza. We will see something about it too in today's report. Before that, let us move on today's fact in which we will see some common genericised trademarks. Today, we will have a list with 5 trademarks:

This list contains 10 trademarks that were originally legally protected but have lost their legality as being a common name within that product or service:

1. Aspirin: Aspirin still continues to remain a trademark name for the Bayer company. It has been declared Generic in some countries due to its popularity in the medical sector. As the chemical name acetylsalicylic acid is too difficult to remember, people prefer to say Aspirin.

2. Cellophane: It is still a registered trademark of Innovia Films Limited and was originally a trademark of DuPont and has become generic due to its widespread use.

3. Escalator: It was originally a trademark of Otis Elevator Company but has become Generic due to its huge Popularity and widespread use and the fact that Otis Elevator Company invented the Escalator or the Lift (as it is called generally).

4. Petrol: Carless, Capel and Leonard invented the Trade name 'petrol' for refined petroleum spirit. Since then, it has slowly and steadily become Generic.

5. Yo-Yo: It is still a Papa's Toy Co. Limited Trademark in some countries but has become genericised in many countries, especially USA and India. It is a good example of a Trademark as almost all the small kids refer to the 'Spinning Toy' as a Yo-Yo.