1

BRAND VS. GENERIC

An incomplete list of genericized but formerly registered trademarks
Professor Dean Rorvig

The following list contains a few brands which were originally legally protected trademarks, but
which have subsequently lost full legal protection as trademarks by becoming the common (i.e.,
generic) name of the product or service, as used both by the consuming public and commercial
competitors. A generic or genericized trademark is also known as a proprietary eponym.

• A registered trademark (®) has been registered and validated by the United States Patent and
Trademark Office (USPTO). The symbol provides notice that the preceding word or logo is a trademark
or service mark that has been registered with a national trademark office.
• The trademark (™) symbol is used to represent an unregistered trademark. It signifies
common-law rights in a trademark pursuant to the Lanham Act (aka the Trademark Act of 1946).

App Store® — Trademark claimed by Apple Inc but later abandoned.

Aspirin® — A registered trademark of Bayer AG in most of the world, is the generic word in the United
States for the pain reliever acetylsalicylic acid (aka ASA).
Baggies® — The trademark holder is the Pactiv Corporation, which owns the Hefty® brand.
Band-Aid®
Bubble Wrap®
Bundt® — e.g., cake, pan, etc.
Cellophane®
ChapStick®
Chyron® — Chyron Corp develops and manufactures on-screen graphic soft-/hardware for the
broadcast industry.
Coke, short for Coca-Cola® — In some parts of the country, used generically for any carbonated
beverage.
Crock-Pot® — Trademark for its countertop electrical slow cooking appliance is held by Sunbeam
Products, Inc.
Dry Ice®
Dumpster® — The word is a genericized trademark of Dumpster®, an American brand name for a
specific design of large-scale trash/waste container.
Elevator® — _? brand ‘lifts’ at FIT.
Escalator® — Kone brand ‘moving staircases’ at FIT.
Fiberglass®
Flip Phone®
Frisbee®
Google® — The word is also used as a verb (cf competitors Yahoo!, Bing, Aol, et al).
Gore-Tex®
Heroin® — Bayer AG had trademarked the word heroin in 1898.
Hoover® — Vacuum cleaner.
Hula-Hoop®
HyFlex® — Model developed by Brian Beatty at San Francisco State University (c 2006), where
students can take a course in one of three ways: in-person synchronous (F2F), on-line synchronous
(remote), and/or online asynchronous (on-line).
 2

InstaPot® — Electric, countertop multicooker/pressure cooker.

iPad®
Jacuzzi®
Jell-O®
Jet Ski®
Juul®
Kerosene®
Kleenex®
Laundromat®
La-Z-Boy®
LEGO®
Leotard®
Linoleum® — It is considered to be the first branded product name to become a generic term.
Lucite® — Trademarked name for clear acrylic glass (cf Plexiglas®).
Lycra® — Branded spandex (aka elastane) fiber.
Mace® — The original, branded and best-selling OC (Oleoresin Capsicum) pepper spray.
Merino® — Branded wool from Merino sheep breed.
Muzak® — The word Muzak has been a registered trademark since December 21, 1954 of Muzak LLC,
although it dominated the market for so many years that the term is often used (especially when used
with lowercase spelling) as a generic term for all background music.
Nylon® — Nylon is a registered trademark for polyamide. The word nylon is no longer a trademark as
it was deemed to have become a generic term. In a historic lawsuit competitors claimed that Nylon was
such a household word that it could no longer be considered a registered trademark. As a result, Nylon
is now a word, nylon, in the English language.
Onesies®
Petri® — Dish container is named after its inventor, German bacteriologist Julius Richard Petri.
Photoshop®
Ping Pong®
Play-Doh®
Plexiglas® — Trademarked name for clear acrylic glass (cf Lucite®).
Pogo Stick®
Popsicle®
Porta Potti®
Post-it® note
PowerPoint®
Q-tips®
Quonset Hut®
Rollerblade®
Scotch® tape
Scotchgard™
Styrofoam®
Super Glue®
Super Heroes®
Supima® — Branded U.S. grown American Pima cotton.
Swarovski® — Branded lead glass (i.e., crystal)
S’well® — A reusable, insulated, stainless steel beverage bottle.
Tampax®
Tarmac®
Taser®
 3

Tater Tots® — A registered trademark of Ore-Ida® (a division of the H.J. Heinz Company) that is often
used as a generic term.
Teflon™
Teleprompter® — Originated in the 1950s as a trade name used by the TelePrompTer Corporation, for
its Television Prompting Apparatus.
Thermos®
Trampoline®
Tupperware®
Vaseline®
Velcro®
Videotape®
Visine®
Weber® — Outdoor grills.
Xerox®
Yellow Pages®
Yo-Yo®
ZIP® code
Ziploc®
Zipper®
Zippo®
Zoom®

# # # DR/rev/01.01.2021
 4

-
-