Genericide Watch: Is Google At Risk?

It's much too late, if those in charge of protecting Google's brand are honest, to extract "to google" from the English language (a googlectomy?). But perhaps Google has conquered the feared genericide of its trademark, emerging as the literary god-man hero among Kleenex boxes, Rollerblades and Xerox machines. When Wordspy.com included be removed from the online dictionary: help us to protect our brand by deleting the definition of "google" found at wordspy.com or revising it to take into account the trademark status of Google. A note after the definition now informs the reader "that Google is a trademark identifying the search technology and services of Google Technologies Inc." But google the verb, a genuine reflection of the language, is still there among other new phases like "Google bombing," "Googleverse," and "Googlejuice." They forgot Managing Intellectual Property Week that the issue is still at the top of her mind. "Genericization is a concern and something we have to face," said Hagan. "We haven't got to the point of running an ad yet, like Xerox, but it is definitely something we do consider." Their fear is that Google will go the way of the escalator (moving staircase), of aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid), or the Allen wrench (hexagonal screwdriver), being included among lists like CORRECT: The image was enhanced using Adobe Photoshop software. INCORRECT: The image was photoshopped. But is Google really in danger of that? The same crew that sent very serious-sounding emails to those who would abuse their brand were conspicuously silent when here.") Drag this to your Bookmarks. Add to document.write("Del.icio.us") Yahoo My Web