Cory Doctorow’s riff on branding and trademarks
Cory Doctorow’s riff on branding and trademarks. Trademarks went from protecting consumers to protecting brands.
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Reader comments
StephenNov 06, 2004 at 2:12PM
I think you meant to use the permalink for that article, not the home page.
I find it really interesting how brands become synonymous with a product they make, sometimes because they were the first to do it, but other times because they become the most popular brand in their field. Kleenex and Google are two examples of this phenomenon
ryanNov 06, 2004 at 5:18PM
"Genericness" I believe is the legal term for that. I disagree with all of this business about the decline of branding, btw. I think the success of chains like Zara and H&M has more to do with bang for buck than lack of prestige or name value (H&M, though cheap, is still infinitely more respectable than a chain like Old Navy - and Zara is pretty far from being a no-name or "non-brand").
Aaron SittigNov 06, 2004 at 10:57PM
The term I've heard is 'Genericide'.
http://www.legal-definitions.com/IP/genericide.htm
This thread is closed to new comments. Thanks to everyone who responded.