Genericide was Re: COKE in the South

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:38 AM -0600 3/4/05, Mullins, Bill wrote:
>  >
>>  : ...Sometimes words do indeed undergo what the
>>  : lawyers call GENERICIDE, and maybe COKE has done this for some
>>  : people: COKE(S) may have some kind of double-meaning for
>>  some people,
>>  : i.e., a dictionary that properly describes COKE for some Southerners
>>  : might should have entry #1 for the trademark status and #2 for the
>>  : generic use.
>
>Genericide is not in the OED.
>
>>>From the Hein Online legal database.  Nothing better in Lexis/Nexis, and
>I don't have Westlaw.
>
>Vol 20 No. 1 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. p.7 Fall, 1978
>Generic Trademarks, the FTC and the Lanham Act: Covering the Market with
>Formica; Shipley, David E.
>
>" "Genericide," the metamorphosis of a distinctive mark into a generic
>term, ordinarily results from several factors
>which often are difficult to identify; concomitantly, the deterioration
>of the trademark may be equally difficult to abate. "

As I mentioned to Ron off-line a while back, I find this term
extremely misleading, since it strongly suggests the death OF the
generic, as in suicide, fratricide, regicide, genocide,...  But here
what is meant is death (or subsumption) of the trademark by
conversion TO a generic:  the generic is goal, not theme/patient.
Granted, "trademarkicide" isn't viable, but can't those lawyers come
up with something better than "genericide" for what isn't the killing
of a generic?

Larry