List of Protected Trademarks Frequently Used As Generic Terms
Marks in this list are still legally protected as trademarks, at least in some jurisdictions, but are sometimes used by consumers in a generic sense. Unlike the names in the list above, these names are still widely known by the public as brand names, and are not used by competitors. Scholars disagree as to whether the use of a recognized trademark name for similar products can truly be called "generic", or if it is instead a form of synechdoche. The previous list contains trademarks that have completely lost their legal status in some countries, while the following list contains marks which have been registered as trademarks, continue in use, and are actively enforced by their trademark owners. Writing guides such as the AP Stylebook advise writers to "use a generic equivalent unless the trademark is essential to the story."
| Trademarked name | Generic name | Trademark owner | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adrenalin | Epinephrine | Parke-Davis | Widely referred to as "adrenaline" outside of the U.S., and in the BAN and EP systems. |
| Airfix | Plastic injection-moulded scale model kits | Hornby Railways | Still used widely in the UK to describe a scale model as it was the dominant brand at that time. This news article is one example of the brand being treated as a generic term. |
| Airshow | In-flight entertainment moving map | Rockwell Collins | Not commonly used worldwide. |
| Aqua-lung | Open-circuit underwater breathing set with demand valve | See Aqua-lung#Trademark issues | Or nowadays often merely "scuba", or "air scuba", when there is a need to distinguish from rebreathers |
| AstroTurf | Artificial turf | Monsanto Company (formerly) AstroTurf, LLC |
Also gave use to the term Astroturfing. |
| Armco | Crash barrier | AK Steel Holding | Used widely in the UK to describe a crash barrier manufactured from corrugated steel. |
| Band-Aid | Adhesive bandage | Johnson & Johnson | Often used as though generic by consumers in Canada and the U.S., though still legally trademarked. |
| Biro | Ballpoint pen | Société Bic | Used generically in colloquial British and Australian English, particularly for cheaper disposable pens, but remains a registered trademark. Derived from the name of the inventor, László Bíró. |
| Bisleri | Packaged drinking water | Parle | Used in India |
| Bubble Wrap | Inflated cushioning | Sealed Air | |
| Bubbler | Drinking fountain | Kohler Company | Sometimes used as a generic, particularly in Wisconsin and New England. |
| Cadbury | Milk chocolate | Kraft Foods | Used in India |
| Chain gun | Motor operated machine gun | Alliant Techsystems | Also appear as a definition in the Oxford English Dictionary, descrbing it as "a machine gun that uses a motor-driven chain to power all moving parts" |
| ChapStick | Lip balm | Wyeth Consumer Healthcare | |
| Christmas Seals | Christmas Seals | The American Lung Association | A Charity label or fundraising seal issued at Christmas time to fight tuberculosis or other lung disease. Trademark was taken in 1987 by ALA, who has issued National Christmas Seals in the US continuously since 1907, to prevent other US National charities from competing. |
| Cigarette boat | Go-fast boat | Cigarette Racing | The nickname derived from fast powerboats that were designed to smuggle cigarettes fast and outrun law enforcement personnel. Trademark was taken following a founding of a company named after the nickname. |
| Clorox | Bleach | Clorox Company | |
| Coke | Cola, soft drink, pop, soda | Coca-Cola Company | Predominantly used in the Southern United States to refer to any soft drink, not just a cola. Still a trademark. |
| Colt | Revolver | Colt's Manufacturing Company | A common choice of gun during the Wild West, it was used to describe any revolvers during the 19th century, regardless of brand. |
| Connollising | As a verb, to restore automobile leather interior | Connolly Leather | Often used by automobile enthusiasts and medias, when to describe restoring leather interiors, thanks to the high international reputation of the company. |
| Crock-Pot | Slow cooker | Sunbeam Products | "Crock pot" and "crockpot" are common synonyms used by cooks to describe any slow cooker. |
| Cuisinart | Food processor | Conair | Sometimes used in the U.S. to refer to any food processor, but still a trademark. |
| Dictaphone | Dictation machine | Nuance Communications | To date, one of the five oldest surviving U.S. brands. |
| Dolby Surround | Surround sound | Dolby Laboratories | Often 'Dolby Surround' is used by consumers in Dutch-speaking parts of Europe for referring to any surround sound system. |
| Doll Instant Noodle | Instant noodles | Winner Food Products | "Doll Instant Noodle" (公仔麵) is commonly referred in Hong Kong for instant noodles. Winner Food Products (永南食品) has been acquired by its former arch-competitor Nissin Foods in 1989. |
| Dormobile | Motorhome | Bedford Vehicles then Dormobile (Folkestone) Ltd |
Widely used in the United Kingdom to describe any motorhomes. This article by the BBC is an example of the term being used generically. |
| Dumpster | Front loader waste container | Dempster Brothers, Inc. | A registered trademark of the Dempster Brothers in 1963, dumpster is originally a portmanteau of the word dump and the last name Dempster. It originally appeared in the 1951 product name Dempster Dumpster, while related patents date back to 1937. |
| Durex | Adhesive tape (Australia, Brazil) | 3M | Used in Brazil ("fita durex") and some areas of Australia as a generic name for adhesive tape. |
| Durex | Condoms (UK) | SSL International | In the UK and Spain, a brand of condom, which is often used generically. |
| Elastoplast | Adhesive bandage | Beiersdorf | Commonly used in the UK and other Commonwealth countries. |
| El Camino | coupé utility | General Motors | Because the coupé utility body style was never as popular in North America as it is in other English-speaking countries, the term (or it's shortened form, ute) never fell into common usage. Instead, many Americans and Canadians refer to any passenger car-derived vehicle with an open bed as an El Camino, regardless of actual model or manufacturer. |
| Esky | Cooler | Coleman | Australian usage |
| Filofax | Personal organizer | Letts Filofax Group | |
| Formica | Wood or plastic laminate | Formica Corporation, part of Fletcher Building | Widely used for the generic product. An attempt to have the trademark quashed failed in 1977. |
| Frigidaire | Refrigerator | Electrolux | Commonly used in Canada by French Canadians, especially abbreviated as "frigo". |
| Frisbee | Flying disc | Wham-O | |
| Glad Wrap | Cling-film | Glad (company) | Used in Australia, New Zealand. |
| internet search engine | Google Inc. | See Google (verb) | |
| Hacky Sack | Footbag | Wham-O | |
| Hills Hoist | Rotary clothes line | Hills Industries | Australian usage |
| Hoover | Vacuum cleaner | Hoover Company | Widely used as a noun and verb. De facto loss of trademark in the UK. |
| Hula hoop | Toy hoop | Wham-O | |
| iPod | portable media player | Apple Inc. | Officially spelled as "iPod" with a miniscule i and a capital P by Apple Inc. Brazilians tend to avoid generalizing Apple's trademark (for informal purposes) using a pejorative term to describe other portable media players, which are less expensive and of presumed inferior quality, iPobre ("iPoor", in free translation). The word is so common that it is used by mass media. |
| Jacuzzi | Hot tub or whirlpool bath | Jacuzzi | |
| Javex | Bleach | Clorox Company | Used primarily in Canada, where bleach is "eau de javel" as a French-language generic. Acquired from Colgate-Palmolive in late 2006. |
| JCB | Backhoe loader | J. C. Bamford | Has become a generic term for an excavator mounted with both a front loader and a backhoe in British English, as recognized by the Oxford English Dictionary. Invented by J C Bamford Excavators Ltd., which is still the largest supplier of backhoe loaders. |
| Jeep | Compact sport utility vehicle | Chrysler | Chrysler recently used "trademark awareness" advertisements to prevent the brand from becoming a generic noun or verb, including such statements as They invented ‘SUV’ because they can’t call them Jeep |
| Jell-O | Gelatin dessert; jelly (UK) | Kraft Foods | The Jell-O brand also encompasses pudding products. This is one example of usage by Martha Stewart. |
| Jet Ski | Stand-up personal watercraft | Kawasaki | Used universally to refer to any type of personal watercraft. This news article is one example of usage. |
| Jiffy bag | padded mailing envelopes | Sealed Air | |
| JumboTron | Large-screen television | Sony | Still used, although Sony exited the market for this product in 2001. |
| Kindle | e-book reader | Amazon.com, Inc. | A growing generic trademark for e-readers. |
| Kleenex | Facial tissue | Kimberly-Clark | Often used by consumers as if it were generic in the U.S., France and Canada, but still a legally recognized trademark. |
| Kool-Aid | Flavored drink | Kraft Foods Company | Often used as the generic term for any drink mix in the United States. |
| Kraft Dinner | Macaroni and Cheese | Kraft Foods Company | While not used to describe macaroni and cheese made from scratch, it is often understood to be macaroni and cheese. |
| Lava lamp | Liquid motion lamp | Mathmos | |
| Lexan | Polycarbonate resin thermoplastic glass | SABIC | |
| Matchbox | Die cast toy | Mattel | Used at its height of popularity to describe die cast cars. |
| Memory Stick | Flash memory storage device | Sony | |
| Multiball | Williams | A feature in pinball where two or more balls are in play at the same time. | |
| Muzak | Elevator music, background music | Muzak Holdings | An often derogatory term frequently used to describe any form of Easy Listening, smooth jazz, or Middle of the road music, or to the type of recordings once commonly heard on "beautiful music" radio stations. |
| NOS (Nitrous Oxide Systems) | Nitrous | Holley Performance Products | Widely used generically to describe nitrous systems used in motor vehicles. One example of this was when it was used prominently in the 2001 film The Fast and the Furious. |
| Nutella | Chocolate hazelnut spread | Ferrero SpA | Commonly used to describe many kinds of spreadable chocolate |
| Onesies | Infant bodysuit | Gerber Products Company | Often used by consumers in the U.S. as if it were generic; "Onesies" still a legally trademarked brand name of Gerber, which objects to its usage in the singular form as "Onesie" or as a generic product name. |
| Otter Pops | Plastic tube filled frozen snack with flavored sugary liquid; ice pop (UK); frozo-pop (US) | National Pax | Often used as a name for a style of frozen snack consisting of a frozen tube in which frozen sugary liquid is pushed up through the top and eaten. |
| Page Three (or Page 3) | Topless glamour photography in tabloid newspapers | News International Ltd | Although "Page Three" and "Page 3" are registered trademarks of News International Ltd, parent company of The Sun tabloid newspaper, the term is often used in a generic sense to describe topless glamour photography in tabloid newspapers, especially in the UK. |
| Perspex | Acrylic glass | Lucite | |
| Philadelphia | Cream cheese | Kraft Foods | According to Kraft Foods, the first American cream cheese was made in New York in 1872 by American dairyman William Lawrence, and in 1880 'Philadelphia' was adopted as the brand name after the city that Americans considered at the time to be the home of top quality food. |
| Photoshop | Photo manipulation | Adobe Systems | Commonly used as a verb to generically describe digital manipulation or compositing of photographs. |
| Ping Pong | Table tennis | Parker Brothers | Originally trademarked by Jaques and Son, was later passed to Parker Bros. A number of U.S. organisations nowadays are required to refer its sport as table tennis as means of trademark protection. |
| Plexiglas, Plexiglass | Acrylic glass | Altuglas International, Rohm & Haas (formerly) |
Often misspelled with a double "s", which appears to have become generic, possibly providing partial protection for the tradename "Plexiglas" |
| Polaroid | Instant film | Polaroid Corporation | Commonly used to refer to instant photograph shot during model auditions. |
| Popsicle | Ice Pop; ice lolly (UK) | Good Humor-Breyers | |
| Portakabin | Portable building | Portakabin Ltd. | Widely-used term for a portable modular building in the UK. |
| Post-it | Sticky note | 3M | Often used by consumers as if it were generic in the U.S. and Canada, but still a legally recognized trademark. |
| Pot Noodle | Instant noodles | Unilever | Used widely in the United Kingdom as it is the dominant brand. |
| Pritt Stick | Glue stick | Henkel | A newspaper article by the Daily Mirror (on 27 March 2010) treated the brand as a generic name, another example of use is by The Guardian on its 16 June 2007 article. |
| Q-tips | Cotton swabs; cotton buds (UK) | Unilever | Often used by consumers as if it were generic in the U.S. and Canada, but still a legally recognized trademark. |
| Realtor | Real estate agent | National Association of Realtors | Often used by the public, the media, and even real estate agents to refer generally to any real estate agent, but the term is a legally recognized trademark of the National Association of Realtors. The terms "Realtor" and "Realtors" refer to members of this association, and not to real estate agents generally. The National Association of Realtors is engaged in ongoing efforts to prevent the mark from becoming generic. These efforts include, among other things, writing to members of the media to complain of improper usage, distribution of information and guidelines on correct usage, and the development of an educational video on the subject. National Association of Realtors' trademark protection video. |
| Ribena | Blackcurrant squash | GlaxoSmithKline | Refers to blackcurrant squash in common usage, although other flavours of Ribena exist. |
| Rizla | Rolling paper | Imperial Tobacco | Often used to describe rolling papers which are used to contain rolled tobacco or marijuana. |
| Rollerblade | Inline skates | Nordica | Commonly used name by consumers in the U.S. and Canada, but the name is still a trademark. |
| Saran Wrap | Plastic wrap; cling film (UK) | S. C. Johnson & Son Asahi Kasei |
|
| Scalextric | Slot car | Hornby Railways | Used commonly in the United Kingdom to describe slot cars and the hobbies itself. |
| Scantron | Bubble sheets | M&F Worldwide | |
| Scotch tape | Clear adhesive tape (US) | 3M | Appears in dictionaries as both generic and trademarked. "Trademark Law" advises that proper usage is "Scotch brand cellophane tape" to combat "generic tendencies". |
| Ski-Doo | Snowmobile | Bombardier Recreational Products | Usage in Canada, especially Quebec and British Columbia. |
| Sea-Doo | Sit-down personal watercraft | Bombardier Recreational Products | Used regionally in the U.S. (where the company holds 50.3% of the market share) to refer to any type of sit-down PWC. Usage is strongest in Canada, especially in Quebec, where the manufacturer is based. |
| Sellotape | Clear adhesive tape (UK) | Sellotape Company, owned by Henkel Consumer Adhesives | Often used generically as a verb and noun. Appears in dictionaries as both generic and trademarked. |
| Sharpie | Permanent marker | Sanford L.P., owned by Newell Rubbermaid | James Faulkner, Sanford's marketing manager has said "In America the Sharpie name is used as the generic for a permanent marker". |
| Speedo | Swim briefs | Speedo | |
| Stetson | Cowboy hat | John B. Stetson Company | Although John B. Stetson Company manufacturers other types of brimmed hats, the word Stetson has been long used for a generic cowboy hat which features a high crown and wide brim. |
| Stanley knife | Utility knife | Stanley Works | In Great Britain, the press and law enforcement officers have had referred to it as Stanley knife during incidents as the following two links indicates, regardless if said weapon is actually a utility knife. The trademark have since entered into a dictionary term. |
| Stelvin closure | Screw cap | Rio Tinto Alcan | Often used generically. |
| Sto-Fen | Diffusion filter | Sto-Fen Products | Often used generically to describe a flash gun diffuser. |
| Styrofoam | extruded polystyrene foam | Dow Chemical Company | In the United States and Canada, "styrofoam" is often used as a generic term for disposable foam cups, plates, coolers and packing material, although these are made from a different polystyrene product than true Styrofoam Brand Foam, which is made for thermal insulation and craft applications. |
| Super Glue | Cyanoacrylate adhesive | Super Glue Corporation | The term "superglue" is often used informally as a verb or noun, but is still a trademark (US) |
| Super Heroes | Superhero | DC comics Marvel Comics | The two-word version of the term is a trademark co-owned by DC Comics and Marvel Comics. |
| Tannoy | Public address system | Tannoy Ltd. | UK usage |
| Targa top | Semi-convertible hard roof panel | Porsche | Although first used in the 1960s, trademark was not claimed until the 1970s, when its popularity grew; hence, the name is treated as a generic trademark by the general public and the motoring press to describe a detachable hard roof panel. |
| Tarmac | Asphalt road surface. | Tarmac | Often used by consumers as if it were generic in the UK and Canada, but still a legally recognized trademark. |
| Taser | Electroshock weapon, stun gun | Taser Systems Taser International |
Acronym for a fictional weapon: Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle. Taser is a registered tradename, prompting a backformed verb "to tase" which means "to use a Taser on", although "to taser" is also commonly used. |
| Telecopier | Facsimile machine | Xerox | |
| Tippex | Correction fluid | Tipp-Ex | Refers to white liquid applied with a brush used to hide mistakes, written or typed, with ink so they can be overwritten. (Europe, especially Germany, France, Spain and the UK) |
| Tivoli | Amusement park | Tivoli A/S | The Danish Tivoli Gardens amusement park has registered its colloquial name "Tivoli" as company name and trademark. In Danish language, the word “tivoli” has however been a generic term for “amusement park” from before the Tivoli Gardens opened in 1843 and is still used as such, for instance in the name of many other amusement parks all over Denmark and other Scandinavian countries. This is currently the focal point of several legal disagreements, with the first (Tivoli A/S vs Innocent Pictures ApS) leading to a win for Tivoli A/S in Denmark's Supreme Court in September 2010. |
| TiVo | Digital Video Recorder (DVR) | TiVo, Inc. | Records television shows and movies without the need for a VCR or videocassette, and allows users to rewind live television. |
| Tupperware | Plastic storage containers for food | Earl Tupper | preparation, storage, containment, and serving products for the kitchen and home, which were first introduced to the public in 1946. |
| Tylenol | Paracetamol,
Acetaminophen in the US & Canada |
McNeil Consumer Healthcare | |
| U-Haul | Box truck | U-Haul International | Because of the company's ubiquity (there are 15,900 dealers across the country) the name is sometimes used as a genericized trademark to refer to the services of any rental company. |
| Vaseline | Petroleum jelly, petrolatum | Unilever | Often used by consumers as if it were generic in the U.S. and Canada, but still a legally recognized trademark. |
| Velcro | Hook-and-loop fastener | Velcro company | Used as generic, but still trademarked. Often used as a verb. |
| Veroboard | Stripboard | Vero Technologies Ltd | an electronics prototyping board |
| Walkman | Personal stereo | Sony Corporation | Was often used generically for any portable stereo player, and in 2002 an Austrian court ruled that it had passed into common usage, but still a legally recognized trademark. |
| WaveRunner | Personal water craft | Yamaha Motor Company | Often used, along with Jet Ski, to refer to any type of personal watercraft. |
| Windex | Hard-surface cleaner | S. C. Johnson & Son | |
| Winnebago | Class A recreational vehicle (UK) recreational vehicle (US) | Winnebago Industries | Used in the United Kingdom to describe a coach sized American motorhome. The term is also used generically in the United States describe pretty much any motorhome, but not to the same extent. |
| Wite-Out | Correction fluid | Société Bic | A white liquid applied with a brush used to hide mistakes, written or typed, with ink so they can be overwritten. (US) |
| Xerox | Photocopier or to make a photocopy | Xerox | Xerox has used "trademark awareness" advertisements to prevent the brand from becoming a generic noun or verb, including such statements as "You can't make a Xerox." However, it is used in India and Russia as a generic word for 'photocopy'. In Brazilian Portuguese, xerocar, or less frequently xerocopiar, is a common verb for "to make a photocopy". |
| Zodiac | Rubber-tubed inflatable boat | Zodiac Marine & Pool | Used colloquially to refer to any brand of rubber-tubed (or other synthetic material) boat (sometimes with a rigid hull, sometimes with a rubber floor) |
Read more about this topic: List Of Generic And Genericized Trademarks
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, protected, frequently, generic and/or terms:
“Every morning I woke in dread, waiting for the day nurse to go on her rounds and announce from the list of names in her hand whether or not I was for shock treatment, the new and fashionable means of quieting people and of making them realize that orders are to be obeyed and floors are to be polished without anyone protesting and faces are to be made to be fixed into smiles and weeping is a crime.”
—Janet Frame (b. 1924)
“A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Guns have metamorphosed into cameras in this earnest comedy, the ecology safari, because nature has ceased to be what it always had been—what people needed protection from. Now nature tamed, endangered, mortal—needs to be protected from people.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“I have frequently gained my first real insight into the character of parents by studying their children.”
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)
““Mother” has always been a generic term synonymous with love, devotion, and sacrifice. There’s always been something mystical and reverent about them. They’re the Walter Cronkites of the human race . . . infallible, virtuous, without flaws and conceived without original sin, with no room for ambivalence.”
—Erma Bombeck (20th century)
“Of course I’m a black writer.... I’m not just a black writer, but categories like black writer, woman writer and Latin American writer aren’t marginal anymore. We have to acknowledge that the thing we call “literature” is more pluralistic now, just as society ought to be. The melting pot never worked. We ought to be able to accept on equal terms everybody from the Hassidim to Walter Lippmann, from the Rastafarians to Ralph Bunche.”
—Toni Morrison (b. 1931)