Lego is simply following its legal counsels’ advice to avoid genericide. They don’t actually hate the people they send such letters to. The people reading the letters are the ones overreacting.
I used to work at Xerox in the late Eighties, and they got their undies in a serious bunch when anyone referred to “Xeroxing” something.
I’ve never heard of “Fablon” or “sticky-backed plastic.” But the pictures look like Con-tact paper, is that the general idea?
What is the bizarre non-trademark infringing term for this?
I still don’t know what else to call a Laundromat, but I’m sure the alternative is stupid.
The alternative is launderette or laundrette which, yes, is pretty stupid. It goes back to at least 1949, according to the OED. SFAIK the “Laundromat” trademark was never used in the UK, so this term wasn’t around to be genericized in BrE.
I’m sure I’ve seen the term “Coin-operated laundry” used
Search the Internet (using a search engine)?
I’m waiting for someone to make a knock-off of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter called I Can’t Believe It’s Not I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter. 
Yeah, but the whole Legos/Lego Bricks stuff is just dumb. I’ve had people bitch on this very board that the plural and singular are both Lego.
Talk about being fanboys who need to get lives; getting butthurt about the pluralization of a children’s toy range is pretty much the epitome of toxic dorkiness.
Yes, it’s dumb, but it’s not a trademark issue.
I have always called them Legos, and I’m not going to stop.
Also, Monica from Friends probably has said it a lot.
I was rather surprised at this, but indeed the trademark, first used in commerce in 1936, is no longer active in the US:
http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4805:die5eo.2.145
I was surprised to learn that chain gun is a registered trademark for an externally-powered machine gun.
I used to worked somewhat peripherally in this field spotting infractions. The ones I remember are Band-Aid, Kleenex, Kitty Litter and Ping Pong. All had to be used with descriptors following them, like "Band-Aid brand sheer adhesive strip (trademark symbol) to not get flagged as violations. You would probably get a nasty gram from the co. or its attorneys if the trademark appeared in print incorrectly.
Some of the surprising ones I’ve read in the past that lost their trademark are (off the top of my head): Gasoline, Kerosene, Trampoline, Aspirin, Oatmeal.
Who else remembers the one infamous time where Adobe put out a style guide on how to use their product name?
Yeah, where you see this the most is on the Food Network show Chopped.
They use a lot of brand name products in their mystery baskets, so there’s usually a couple of generic names involved per episode, like cream-filled snack cake for a Twinkie.
We used to called it carbonated prune juice.
Re: ballpoint pens. It took me the longest time, embarrassingly, to figure out that a biro was a ballpoint pen. I always thought it was some schmancy pen people in the UK used.
The producers of the cooking show **Chopped **are experts at what the OP is talking about. When the host, Ted Allen, is listing the ingredients to be used in a round, he will speak of “hot chili sauce” (Sriracha) or “cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies” (Oreos).
And often, the item will be shown in it’s easily identifiable packaging with all text removed. Picture a solid red Sriracha-shaped bottle with a green cap.
mmm