funny Google survive Genericide

[WMGroomAK]

I saw this article and thought it was kind of funny...  According to a ruling in a US Federal Appeals court, Google will be allowed to keep the trademark to the name Google.  Apparently at issue is whether the term google has become so predominate in usage that it would preclude you from having a search engine without using the term 'googling' to describe a search.  

 

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/05/genericide-assault-to-nullify-the-google-trademark-fails/

Quote

A federal appeals court sided with Google in a case brought by a man who bought 763 domains with the term "google" in them. The court ruled that Google still retains its trademark even if the term "google" has become known for searching the Internet. One reason is because Google is a search engine and a whole lot more.

 

"Even if we assume that the public uses the verb 'google' in a generic and indiscriminate sense, this tells us nothing about how the public primarily understands the word itself, irrespective of its grammatical function, with regard to Internet search engines," the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled. The court noted that trademark loss to genericide occurs when the name has become an "exclusive descriptor" that makes it difficult for competitors to compete unless they use that name.

I guess this could be considered good news for Microsoft as they now have no chance of worrying about losing a trademark for Bing.  

 

EDIT:  I've added a poll for those interested...

Edited May 16, 2017 by WMGroomAK
Added a poll

[ARikozuM]

I have never used "google" to replace "search" and don't see how a trademark dispute could happen over uncommonly common word usage.

[Droidbot]

does nobody say 'look it up'

 

ive never said 'google it' outside of an ironic context

[Crossbred]

There's a good reason nobody has ever Yahoo!'d anything.

[Oshino Shinobu]

2 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

I have never used "google" to replace "search" and don't see how a trademark dispute could happen over uncommonly common word usage.

I think you're in a very small minority there. Most people I come across use the term "Google it" instead of "Search for it" or something similar. 

 

You may be surprised how many trademarks are actually genericized (or rather, close to it) and have just become the word for that thing. Videotape, Trampoline, Escalator and Sellotape are all genericized trademarks. They get to a point where they become the accepted and most commonly used term. 

[MegaDave91]

Depends entirely on who I am talking to. I will say "Google it" to someone who is not / not very technology literate; they will associate the name with that white page that appears upon opening a browser where you enter text into a bar.

 

 

 

[Okjoek]

To be honest I like to say "google is your friend" IRL. So I'm one of those people in question.

[WMGroomAK]

In order to get some better idea on how prevalent 'googling it' is in the lexicon, I've created a poll for this. 

[Cheezdoodlez]

I always say "google it" (or "googla" as we say here in Sweden.) and most people I know tend to use the phrase instead of saying e.g "look it up". I could totally see the court ruling in favor of the random man instead of Google.

[SubTract]

Perhaps it's only me, but when I tell somebody to google it. I mean use Google specifically. Chances that most of the other search engines will provide anything useful as quickly or as highly ranked is at most very slim.

 

If I was generalising for somebody to look online I wouldn't say to google it. 

 

I'm pretty sure bing only gets reffered to as a joke. I've never heard anybody say "bing it" without being sarcastic or facetious. (Sure somebody probably has but I've never heard it)

[vorticalbox]

I duckduckgo it.

[Droidbot]

3 minutes ago, vorticalbox said:

I duckduckgo it.

PRIVACY

[Andreas Lilja]

7 minutes ago, vorticalbox said:

I duckduckgo it.

I have DDG, but 100% of the time I !g

[trag1c]

10 hours ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

I think you're in a very small minority there. Most people I come across use the term "Google it" instead of "Search for it" or something similar. 

 

You may be surprised how many trademarks are actually genericized (or rather, close to it) and have just become the word for that thing. Videotape, Trampoline, Escalator and Sellotape are all genericized trademarks. They get to a point where they become the accepted and most commonly used term. 

Kleenex, Jell-O, Bandaid, Dremel, Photoshop to name a few more.

[Tam3n]

"Google it" all the way, lol

[PopReference]

Should add "look it up" and "go EDUCATE yourself" to poll

[Joelbanks5]

13 hours ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

I think you're in a very small minority there. Most people I come across use the term "Google it" instead of "Search for it" or something similar. 

 

You may be surprised how many trademarks are actually genericized (or rather, close to it) and have just become the word for that thing. Videotape, Trampoline, Escalator and Sellotape are all genericized trademarks. They get to a point where they become the accepted and most commonly used term. 

Wait so what the hell is a trampoline or escalator really called? Lol

[Oshino Shinobu]

6 minutes ago, Joelbanks5 said:

Wait so what the hell is a trampoline or escalator really called? Lol

Trampoline and Escalator are both genericized trademarks, so they're not actually trade marks anymore and have become the actual term for those things. I suppose Escalator would be called "moving mechanical stairs" or something similar. Not sure what you'd try to call a Trampoline in a generic way. 

 

There's a lot of trademarks that have become generic but have not lost their trademark because of it. Things like Velcro, Biro, Dremel, Frisbee etc. are examples of those. 

 

3 hours ago, trag1c said:

Kleenex, Jell-O, Bandaid, Dremel, Photoshop to name a few more.

None of those are actually (fully/officially) Genericized, they still retain their trademark, like Google has. They're ones (like the examples in this post) that are used as a general term by a lot of people but have not lost their trademark because of it. 

[samcool55]

What's next? Nintendo screwing people because they say switch?

[mr moose]

The poll is full of lies, Everyone says google it because they are either speaking to non techies or they are non techies or they are techies speaking to techies but they still say it becasue they know what it means and don't care.

 

everyone knows google is a company even though they use the noun as a verb.  

 

Except me, I say: Please enact a comparative binary lookup and retrieval script  using data transfer protocols across an interconnected network of computers and display the result using a hypertext markup language format reader.   

[DoctorZeus]

I'm not edgy or smart enough to say anything but google it.

[JuNex03]

No "Google is your friend" option?

[Sniperfox47]

I say "Google it" to like 99% of people I know because it's the only search engine that's worth a damn to 99% of people I know.

 

I say "look it up" or "go search it" to my friends who use DuckDuckGo though.

[Taf the Ghost]

1 hour ago, Sniperfox47 said:

I say "Google it" to like 99% of people I know because it's the only search engine that's worth a damn to 99% of people I know.

 

I say "look it up" or "go search it" to my friends who use DuckDuckGo though.

I tell people to "Google it", yet I gave up on Google a while ago.  Much like "Photoshop it", Google is as much a verb as a Service now.

[Sniperfox47]

Fucking Kleenex effect >.> Only time I'll tell someone to "go grab a Kleenex" is if I know there's a box of Kleenex around. Otherwise it's "go grab a tissue".