metadata?

[Barnhart]

Ron is quite right about the registrability of a term in prior generic
use.  However, that does not preclude the use of common vocabulary,
such as apple, when it is applied to something which it does not
otherwise or normally describe, such as fruit.  This important concept
allowed for the application of the word apple in the context of
computers.  I suppose one could register the name "dictionary" for a
new and distinct variety of apple (the fruit, not the computer).

Regards,
David Barnhart

David K. Barnhart, Editor
The Barnhart Dictionary Companion [quarterly]
barnhart at highlands.com
www.highlands.com/Lexik

"Necessity obliges us to neologize."
Thomas Jefferson-August 16, 1813