🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Sep11.084516.16908@infodev.cam.ac.uk>, rwe11@cl.cam.ac.uk (Richard Earnshaw) writes:
>I was always under the impression that dilution of a trade mark came from
>other companies being permitted to sell products using the same mark, if the
>manufacturer of `Scotties' were to start calling their product `Kleenex'
>and no action were taken then dilution would have occurred, but to say
>"pass me a Kleenex" is not.  Similarly, many people I know call a vacuum
>cleaner a Hoover; but, to the best of my knowledge Hoover is still a trade
>mark of guess who...
>
>The same applies to the brand name Unix; what you or I call it is pretty
>irrelevant, so long as other companies don't try to market under the same
>name.

I don't think commercial use matters.  Parker Brothers (I think) used
to have "Monopoly" as a registered trademark until a few years.  The
court ruled the word Monopoly is in such common use that it could no
longer be a trademark.

The word UN*X is not yet a common word.  Try strike up a conversation
in a bar, "Say, do you like UNIX?"  You will be very surprised by the
response.  Don't try that, especially not to a man who is four size
bigger than you.