The reason a product becomes a verb
A name used as a verb has won the category and endangered itself. Total familiarity is the point at which a mark starts to describe rather than distinguish.
Filed by The Archivist 2 min read
Intuition test — answer before you read on
A brand name enters ordinary speech as a verb for the whole category. Why do its owners object?
Correct answer: B
A mark functions by identifying a source. Once the word is the ordinary term for the category, it describes a class instead — the drift called genericide, which historically cost marks such as escalator and thermos their protection in some jurisdictions.
People do not search, they use a brand name as the verb. They do not vacuum a carpet in some countries; they use a manufacturer’s name. The company achieved the deepest form of recognition available and then spent legal budget trying to persuade the public to stop.
What everyone sees
Verb status looks like the summit of brand success, and marketing departments celebrate it in public while filing objections in private. The contradiction is visible but rarely explained, so it reads as corporate ingratitude towards the customers who made the name famous.
What is actually happening
Trademark systems distinguish marks that identify a source from words that describe a category. A name in general use as a common term drifts towards the descriptive end of that spectrum, and several famous marks — aspirin, escalator, thermos in some jurisdictions — lost protection this way. Linguists call the process genericide: ubiquity converts a proper noun into a common one, and a common noun cannot perform the function the mark was registered for.
Why it stays hidden
The risk hides because the symptom is indistinguishable from triumph. Every use of the verb is free advertising, so the company’s incentives point both ways at once, and the public sees only the celebration. The legal mechanism is also slow and invisible: nothing happens on the day the verb catches on, and by the time the category term is settled in ordinary speech the drift has already occurred.
A mark works by distinguishing. When everyone uses it to describe the category, it has stopped distinguishing anything.
A mark works by distinguishing. When everyone uses it to describe the category, it has stopped distinguishing anything.
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A mark works by distinguishing. When everyone uses it to describe the category, it has stopped distinguishing anything.
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Sources & further reading 3
- Landes & Posner, "Trademark Law: An Economic Perspective", Journal of Law and Economics, 1987
- Clankie, "A Theory of Genericization on Brand Name Change", 2002
- Nunberg, "The Way We Talk Now", 2001
Cross-references
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