Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a trademark attorney so this drives me batty. Pack n play is a registered trademark. Graco (owner of that brand) came up with an updated playpen (with a changer attached, etc.) and it really took off. It's taken off so much that many people use the mark as the generic term, unfortunately. Modern generic term=play yard.

So when you need a Q-tip, do you ask for a cotton swap? Do you say adhesive strip instead of band-aid?

She's a trademark attorney, so she has to care. When people use the term to refer to other companies' products, it weakens the trademark. Then they have to go around policing the misuse of the mark.

I suppose that a trademark attorney should know, but I would have thought that have America think that your company's is the very definition of the product woudl be a good thing. Anyway, where I grew up, you offered guests a Coke, a Kleenex, and made Xerox copies.

No, it's a horrible thing, because if it becomes a common word, you lose control of the trademark. And that means you have trouble defending against a competitor who uses the term on their product label. As a result, they have to send cease and desist letters around, got to court, etc. or one day they may lose them.

Examples of trademarks which cannot be defended in the US are Thermos, Butterscotch, Yo-yo, Escalator, and Aspirin.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a trademark attorney so this drives me batty. Pack n play is a registered trademark. Graco (owner of that brand) came up with an updated playpen (with a changer attached, etc.) and it really took off. It's taken off so much that many people use the mark as the generic term, unfortunately. Modern generic term=play yard.

So when you need a Q-tip, do you ask for a cotton swap? Do you say adhesive strip instead of band-aid?

She's a trademark attorney, so she has to care. When people use the term to refer to other companies' products, it weakens the trademark. Then they have to go around policing the misuse of the mark.

I suppose that a trademark attorney should know, but I would have thought that have America think that your company's is the very definition of the product woudl be a good thing. Anyway, where I grew up, you offered guests a Coke, a Kleenex, and made Xerox copies.

I took a business law class and some marketing classes in college. It actually weakens the trademark. Aspirin and escalator also started out as trademarked brand specific names but when everyone uses the word "aspirin" in lieu of analgesic it's cheapened because no one says "I need a Bayor" it can mean ANY brand, not just that specific brand and then the company loses money to a competitor who is taking advantage of the goodwill the original Aspirin company built. So the original Aspirin company spends years and money branding their product and getting people to trust it and then someone else comes along, slaps the word "aspirin" on their product and essentially steals the work the original company put into branding themselves and getting people to want and trust it in the first place. Does that make sense? There's a lot of products like that out there, but aspirin ad escalator are the only two I specifically remember.

I still rember the ad - you can make copies on a Xerox machine, but you can't Xerox on a copy machine.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a trademark attorney so this drives me batty. Pack n play is a registered trademark. Graco (owner of that brand) came up with an updated playpen (with a changer attached, etc.) and it really took off. It's taken off so much that many people use the mark as the generic term, unfortunately. Modern generic term=play yard.

So when you need a Q-tip, do you ask for a cotton swap? Do you say adhesive strip instead of band-aid?

She's a trademark attorney, so she has to care. When people use the term to refer to other companies' products, it weakens the trademark. Then they have to go around policing the misuse of the mark.

I suppose that a trademark attorney should know, but I would have thought that have America think that your company's is the very definition of the product woudl be a good thing. Anyway, where I grew up, you offered guests a Coke, a Kleenex, and made Xerox copies.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a trademark attorney so this drives me batty. Pack n play is a registered trademark. Graco (owner of that brand) came up with an updated playpen (with a changer attached, etc.) and it really took off. It's taken off so much that many people use the mark as the generic term, unfortunately. Modern generic term=play yard.

So when you need a Q-tip, do you ask for a cotton swap? Do you say adhesive strip instead of band-aid?

She's a trademark attorney, so she has to care. When people use the term to refer to other companies' products, it weakens the trademark. Then they have to go around policing the misuse of the mark.

Pack n plays are more marketed for mobile sleeping, aren't they? Everyone I know only used them for taking with them on vacations etc. and then used the changing pad in the early days and maybe to allow them to use the bathroom. I don't know anyone who actually let their kids just play in that little area.

People also figured out that having toddlers and three year olds spend time in a Playpen was not developmentally healthy. Pack n' plays are for infants.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a trademark attorney so this drives me batty. Pack n play is a registered trademark. Graco (owner of that brand) came up with an updated playpen (with a changer attached, etc.) and it really took off. It's taken off so much that many people use the mark as the generic term, unfortunately. Modern generic term=play yard.

So when you need a Q-tip, do you ask for a cotton swap? Do you say adhesive strip instead of band-aid?

I say cotton swab, bandage.

Anonymous wrote:I'm a trademark attorney so this drives me batty. Pack n play is a registered trademark. Graco (owner of that brand) came up with an updated playpen (with a changer attached, etc.) and it really took off. It's taken off so much that many people use the mark as the generic term, unfortunately. Modern generic term=play yard.

So when you need a Q-tip, do you ask for a cotton swap? Do you say adhesive strip instead of band-aid?

A playpen was a lot bigger. They are similar but not the same.

Anonymous wrote:why the term change? yuppiness?

Not yuppiness. They are often really inexpensive. It was the Graco design that allows the entire thing to collapse like an umbrella that made them popular. Now people use their brand name to describe the entire product category.

Let's see now...DS is 16 years old and we had one for him.

I'm a trademark attorney so this drives me batty. Pack n play is a registered trademark. Graco (owner of that brand) came up with an updated playpen (with a changer attached, etc.) and it really took off. It's taken off so much that many people use the mark as the generic term, unfortunately. Modern generic term=play yard.

Playpens never packed down into a travel case. They just sort of folded in half.

why the term change? yuppiness?