I think what he means is that some times lay people say Kleenex meaning
"any tissue"
and people say Coke meaning "any softdrink" as in "Hey while you're in the
cafeteria could you grab me a coke?"
and lay people say Xerox meaning "copier".
It really IS a damn shame about the pen/PDA naming dispute. I still don't
understand it from Pilot Pen's point of view. I mean who honestly believes
there could be a lot of confusion between pens & PDAs? I think when the
average person says "my pilot" they mean their PDA or the operator of their
personal jet & when they're talking about their pens they say "my pen".
Regardless. It's not going to stop the public at large from using the word
"pilot" when talking to each other about their PDA's. I dont' care how many
lawyers anyone throws at the problem. Individuals use the terminology they
want to.
just my mini-rant....
jason
At 03:22 PM 4/19/99 -0700, you wrote:
>At 2:34 PM -0700 4/19/99, Nathan J. Williams wrote:
>>general. So while I respect the company's desire to keep control of
>>their trademarks, it seems like they've reached the level of Kleenex,
>>Coke, or Xerox in the PDA world.
>
>I can think of a couple of flaws with that:
>
>1) Coke and Xerox very aggressively defend their brands. That is, you
>won't get Pepsi, RC, or generic cola if you ask for a Coke, and you won't
>get generic copier paper if you ask for Xerox paper. ...and you wouldn't
>want your secretary to bring back a Cassiopia if sent them out to get a
>Palm V.
>
>2) Palm Computing, Inc. had to 'cease and desist' using the names Pilot and
>PalmPilot because of other companies agressively defending *their* brands.
>
>Of course, if "pilot" (lowercase) catches on as the generic noun for
>connected organizer/PDA, (assuming the pen company doesn't put a stop to
>that) it changes the whole ballgame. Of course, you'd still have to talk
>about the "Palm III pilot" or "Palm V pilot" or "Palm brand pilots" when
>you wanted to specifically call out the dominant player in the market... :)
>
> --Bob
>
