Overview of Trademark Use in Marketing
Talcott J. FranklinAkin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
The dictionary is filled with words that formerly were valuable and popular brands. Brands so powerful that they became “household words”: aspirin, brassier, cellophane, cube steak, dry ice, escalator, gold card, gramophone, ice beer, kerosene, lanolin, light beer, linoleum, mimeograph, nylon, pilates, raisin bran, shredded wheat, space shuttle, super glue, thermos, trampoline, yo-yo, and zipper.
Each of these brands received the “death penalty” from the courts: a ruling that the brand owner no longer had the exclusive right to use the brand.
Almost invariably,...