FRIGIDAIRE and KLEENEX (was ICE BOX)

[Beverly Flanigan]

Tom Murray had an article some years ago called "From trade name to
generic: The case of Coke" (Names, 43, 1995, 165-186).  He cites court
cases dealing with "allowed" use of the brand name as generic.  Roger Shuy
may have something on these issues too.

At 05:01 PM 3/1/2005, you wrote:
>The primacy of what consumers KNOW is also technical and legal, too, isn't
>it, Ron?  That is, it's one thing that matters to the courts in
>determining whether trademark terms have become generic, yes?
>
>Some of this ground is covered in an excellent article by Ron and Jennifer
>Westerhaus, "Linguistic change in words one owns:  How trademarks become
>'generic,'" in _Studies in the History of the English Language
>II:  Unfolding Conversations_, edited by Anne Curzan and Kimberly Emmons
>(Mouton de Gruyter, 2004).  One might accuse me of several conflicts of
>interest in mentioning it, I suppose, since Anne is my collaborator, Ron
>is my colleague and friend, and Jennifer is my fiancee, but Jenny and Ron
>would be the first to point out that I agree entirely with
>Larry.  (Usually, they just say that I'm wrong, but now maybe they'll say
>something like, "Well, now you're just agreeing with Larry," instead.)
>
>Michael