Return to BSD News archive
Xref: sserve gnu.misc.discuss:6210 comp.org.eff.talk:9032 comp.unix.bsd:4972 comp.os.mach:2125 misc.int-property:513 Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss,comp.org.eff.talk,comp.unix.bsd,comp.os.mach,misc.int-property,alt.suit.att-bsdi Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!uunet!stephsf.com!kopachuk!dcb From: dcb@kopachuk.uucp (David Breneman) Subject: Re: Are you sure UNIX is a trade mark? Message-ID: <1992Sep11.194604.3986@kopachuk.uucp> Organization: Tacoma Screw Products, Inc. References: <716101727.10647@zooid.guild.org> Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 19:46:04 GMT Lines: 26 In article <716101727.10647@zooid.guild.org> ron@zooid.guild.org (Secret Mud) writes: > >Kleenex (and Xerox) may be holding on for the moment--but only by sternly >policing any generic usage of their trademark. A large number of common words >used to be trademarked, but lost that protection when they entered into >common usage for any similar generic product: Dry Ice, Escalator, Brassiere, >mimeograph, and zipper--all of these used to be trademarked names. Also Phonograph, which was a trademark owned by Thos A Edison Inc. to describe their line of talking machines. Talking machine was the generic term up until sometime after the turn of the century. Gramophone was also used generically in the US around the turn of the century (and still is in Britain). It was a trademark of the Berliner Talking Machine Company (a predicessor of Victor, as mentioned in my previous post). The "phonograph" in "His Master's Voice" is a Berliner Gramophone. Other examples: Videotape (Ampex), Teletype (Teletype Corp), Blender (Waring Corp), Flipper (on a pinball machine -D. Gottlieb & Co.), etc... -- David Breneman Sys Admin, Tacoma Screw Products, Inc. | ____ ____ ____ dcb@tacoma.uucp | SCREWIE the TSP CLOWN sez- | / /___ /___/ ..!uunet!tacoma!dcb | "Nylok lock nuts lose their | / ____/ / CompuServe: 75760,1232 | binding strength after 1 use!"|