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Subject:FW: product name noun vs adjective From:Laura Bean Warner <laura -dot- bean -at- DELTEC -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 30 May 1997 09:16:10 -0500
>From: Chris Hamilton
>Sent: Friday, May 30, 1997 9:08 AM
>To: Laura Bean Warner
>Subject: Re: product name noun vs adjective
>
>
>Cheryl Kidder wrote:
>>
>> <For years we have used our product name as a noun in all our
>> literature, manuals and online help. The question came up today
>> whether or not this is a problem and should it actually be used as an
>> adjective.>
>
>This has to do with trademarks. If a trademark is used as a noun, it
>starts down the path of being genericized. For instance, if no one had
>ever referred to a facial tissue as a Kleenex, Kleenex wouldn't be used
>to refer to Price Chopper facial tissues, effectively making the value
>of the product name worth a lot less than it would otherwise be.
>
>I worked at Intel for a while and they are zealous at protecting their
>chip names. If you watch their ads, you'll hear Pentium processor,
>Pentium Pro processor, or Pentium II processor. Their goal is to keep
>other companies from cloning their design and using the genericized
>Pentium name.
>
>I could be not entirely right on this, but I know I'm not entirely
>wrong.
>
>Chris
>
>
>--
>Chris Hamilton, Technical Writer
>Greenbrier & Russel
>847.330.4146
>chamilton -at- gr -dot- com
>
>Gianluca Pagliuca! (SportsCenter term)
>
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