I remember, when first learning about trademark code, thinking how bizarre it was that having your designation be considered “generic” was a terrible body. After all, when your brand became synonymous with the product you were selling (reckon Kleenex, Xerox, Band-Aid etc.) it meant that you had really dominated the product category. Except… if you’re a lawyer. Since the dread, of direction, is that if your brand becomes generic, you lose the trademark, and then suddenly others can constitute employ of that brand that you worked so dense to build up. I’m still not convinced that’s <i>really</i> a difficulty if you’re a savvy business person, however it’s the path things are.
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However, as something of “natural” proof of this, just gaze at how much of a gold rush there was in the early dot com era for “generic” dot com domain names. Everyone involved in those businesses just <i>knew</i> why this was vital. They believed that by having those key generic terms, “books.com,” “pets.com,” and much “sex.com” that you would be one of the first places human beings would go, much if they didn’t know who you, as a corporation, were. Of direction, it really didn’t turn outside that path for many players who finished up with those domains. A abundance of the early companies who had “fantastic” domains faded attractive quickly. Execution matters more than just a excellent designation.
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And, of direction, this whole generic business really gets in the path of that backwards trademark view, where having your designation be generic is “terrible.” For example, in a recent lawsuit, AOL learned that its advertising.com domain designation <a href=”http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2010/08/9th_cir_smacks.htm” target=”_blank”>isn’t really valid as a trademark</a> since of its generic nature. In circumstance, the court notes that if human beings are questioned about a corporation, it’s perfectly reasonable to describe it as “an advertising dot com.” I also like how the court smacked down AOL’s claim that without getting a trademark on advertising.com it would capture business away from the corporation:
<blockquote><i>
this is the peril of attempting to build a brand encircling a generic term.
</i></blockquote>
Exactly. If you desire the advantages of building encircling a generic term, you also have to realize there are some trade-offs, and one is that you don’t get to trademark it. However, as we noted when a alike ruling came down at the end year <a href=”http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090726/1548355665.shtml”>against hotels.com</a>, it’s not clear how much this really <i>matters</i>. It only matters if you overvalue the trademark. The domain itself is still unique and the brand is still unique. So does the trademark really much affair?<br /><br /><a href=”http://techdirt.com/articles/20100805/18101410519.shtml”>Permalink</a> | <a href=”http://techdirt.com/articles/20100805/18101410519.shtml#comments”>Comments</a> | <a href=”http://techdirt.com/article.php?sid=20100805/18101410519&op=sharethis”>Email This Tale</a><br />
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