TIVO is making a huge mistake.
Sunday, December 12th, 2004 - 8:19pm
From drudge:
Quote:
TiVo is sending news organizations cease-and-desist letters to keep them from using TiVo as a verb... Developing...
Why would any company want to stop the American public from using your product as a verb? Band-aids, Kleenex, ect.
I think the mgmt team got bored and needed something to do. Someone should send them gameboys.
For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. ~Ron Shelton, Bull Durham, 1988
It''s a trademarked name, they have to do something about it or I believe they lose their power over it. Google did the same thing a few months ago.
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Exactly because of the names you''ve mentioned. In order to keep a trademark, it must maintain its status as a unique designator of the origin of goods. If it becomes a common descriptive name for the product in general, you lose your mark. (That is the extremely shortened legal summary.)
Yes, but people will treat your product like the product to buy. It is great way to sell product.
For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. ~Ron Shelton, Bull Durham, 1988
I happen to agree with Ulairi on this one. I see absolutely no reason that the TiVo corporation wouldn''t want everyone in the world to refer to the process of copying a TV show to a hard-drive device as ''to TiVo.'' Let''s look at these examples. Kleenex. Band-aid. Did these brands have problems with brand copyright? Maybe. But, have they been the top brand in their respective market for years and years? Yup.
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If you have the only product of those specifications. I don''t know about Tivo, but lots of people buy Band-Aids from Curad and other Band-Aid manufacturers other than Johnson & Johnson. That doesn''t equal more money to Johnson & Johnson.
"All that time you waste dating and having sex could be better spent scouring the web for new game developer press releases." - Quintin_Stone
I''m not saying it''s the kiss of death for the entity, but I''m sure they would rather not have other people selling ""TiVos"", which is the result of losing your trademark in the name when the name becomes a description of the product rather than the branding.
Plenty of other companies seem to be able to move a lot of product without their trademark being adopted as the name of the product. I think it is probably a false connection to believe that having the product named after your trademark helps sales; the sales were there before the product became known by that name.
By way of another example, does Sony continue to sell the market leading share of Walkmans now that the name has effectively become generic?
Yes, but Sony has a huge lineup of various products and they can ride the wave of being percieved as top-notch manufacturer, Tivo has only one product and, if it becomes just a product description, they ultimately lose.
Plus, in Sony case, I believe there are number of other aspects that influence their leading position - huge research divisions etc.
And it has always been *Sony* Walkman in the minds of customers, because it has been marketed as such. It cant really be *Tivo* Tivo. Its either Tivo or tivo.
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Or worst of all, people start looking for a ""Sony Tivo.""
"Raise high the black flags, my children."
-- Gebhard von Blucher.
It seems to me like they can get it both ways by claiming that they don''t want the word use as a verb by contacting official news services, while maybe encouraging it in other ways. They know that nobody is going to stop using tivo as a verb at this point.
Just so we are clear, that was my point. Sony effectively lost the exclusive use of Walkman in the public''s mind. I highly doubt that Sony is the hands down, ""no one even close,"" industry leader in walkman sales. My point is that this is a counter example to the previously offered Kleenix and Band-Aid. Sony is (I believe) not sitting with a 80% or so market share in the market; it''s name did enter the popular consciousness as the noun for the product.