Jumping the gun a bit there. “Speedo” as a catchall term for swimming trunks is very much an American (possibly including Canadian) thing. We Brits would probably understand you were talking about swimming-related products, but not automatically think of nut-huggers.
Re Speedos - not used for all such products in Australia.
I prefer DTs (dick togs) or meathangers
What a funny rant! I can’t imagine the companies would get as upset as you do. TiVo probably LOVES the fact that people use the word all the time. I say it all the time, but then, we have 2 TiVos.
I know someone who still calls them mimeographs.
You must be a hoot at parties.
You need to relax. Why not chow down on a BigMac[sup]TM[/sup] brand sandwich product while throwing a Frisbee[sup]TM[/sup] brand flying disc?
(OK, I take your point, actually. People do do this when it’s kind of stupid and you go “No, I’m not using Word. I’m using a computer.” or something.)
I’m also surprised you didn’t mention people using “Chardonay” and “Champagne” innapropriately…
Do you work for Adobe PhotoShop[sup]tm[/sup] by any chance?
You can’t say Photoshopped. Adobe don’t like it!
Do you think them lesbians next door were using name brand products to annoy pizzabrat?
Besides, this is how you pit Adobe, bizzatch.
Oh yes… dontcha know, he has to check first whether he’s drinking Jell-O® shots or My-T-Fine® shots or Royal® shots, because otherwise he won’t be able to enjoy himself.
Please. You clearly meant “budgie smugglers”, or “cock-jocks”.
Whatever happened to good old fashioned swimming trunks?
Is that a Keebab you’re eating there, Cunto?
I found this here:
(My coding skills never were the greatest)
“When a trademark is used to describe a type of product rather than a brand of product, the mark is said to be generic and won’t be given any protection. Sometimes an inherently distinctive mark is so successful that people start to consider the mark to be synonymous with the product itself, and the mark becomes generic. For example, aspirin was originally a highly distinctive brand name for a type of analgesic (salicylic acid). After a while, aspirin became synonymous with salicylic acid itself and was no longer considered distinctive. Escalator and cellophane were once distinctive marks, as well. And not too long ago, the Xerox mark for photocopiers was in grave danger of losing protection because of the common use of the term as a noun (a xerox) and a verb (to xerox something). To prevent this from happening, Xerox launched an expensive campaign urging the public to use “Xerox” as a proper noun (Xerox brand photocopiers).”
So before you go nuts (ooops, am I too late?), try googling (hah!) the subject of your rant. You’d be amazed at what you can find.
Interesting, since photocopies and mimeographs are completely different technologies. Sort of like calling a CD a “record”.
I do that. Am I dating myself now? Though I do hear the occasional youngster do it too.
I still call them albums… :smack:. As in “Does so-and-so have a new album coming out?”. I’ve never gotten the hang of just calling them “CDs”.
Ava
I’ll bet I’d have driven you nuts in school during lunch, because while you were enjoying a sugar-sweetened artificially-fruit-flavored soft drink from your insulated beverage container, I was drinking Kool-Aid from my thermos.
If that’s not enough, he could try some Heroin…registered trademake of the Bayer Corp., 1898 (I do believe they’ve let it lapse though…)
Really? Adode doesn’t like “photoshopped”? It seems to me it’s usually good for the company to become thestandard, enough to become generic. Isn’t it?
Actually photoshopped (along with googled) is one of the verbed nouns I aprove of. Because there really isn’t a more convient verb for what you’re doing, that I can think of. And since I use Photoshop, I’m being accurate anyway :).
I guess Adobe thinks that making “photoshopped” the generic word for digital image manipulation might have the effect of diluting the impact of their particular product. Here is their take on the subject, from their Permissions and Trademark Guidelines webpage:
I can see why they have this stuff on their website, but if they think i’m going to say “I’m sending you some pictures enhanced using Adobe® Photoshop® 7.0” instead of “Here are my photoshopped pictures,” they’re kidding themselves.
Quit smackin yerself. You can still call it an album and be correct.
All I know is that, when I walk into the drug store and ask for “Preparation H”, I’ll get discreetly pointed to the proper aisle where I’ll have a plethora of brands to choose from.
If I walk in and ask the clerk, “Excuse me, can you direct me to a brand assortment of rectal polyp astringent creams?” I’ll have to repeat myself 6 times, then have the baffled clerk ask 4 of his coworkers if they know what I’m talking about, and finally have some old lady waiting in line at the next register yell out “He means Preparation H!!!”
I don’t see this as much of an issue until one has to deal with the irreparably dain-bramaged.
Case it point: Years ago there were, among others, two banks around here. BayBank was one, Mutual Bank was the other. They both issued their own ATM cards, which had been in vogue for maybe 5 years at the time. Mutual Bank, being small, didn’t do much advertising. BayBank, being the bohemoth that it was, had a TV commercial. People dancing around, orgasmically ecstatic, singing “I’ve got my BayBank card, and it keeps on gettin’ better…”
So there was the well known BayBank card, and the lesser known Redi-Cash card, issued by Mutual Bank.
Keep in mind that this was before ATMs were on big networks. There was a real chance that your card would not work in any given machine, unless it was in your bank.
Anyway, one day I was purchasing goods and/or services. The saleswoman (herein after referred to as CW, or Clueless Wonder) told me I needed to make a cash deposit. I told her that I had no cash on me. She said “Do you have a BayBank card? There’s a machine down the street.” I told her that I didn’t have a BayBank card, but I did have an ATM card. She looked at me like I was speaking Chinese. Clearly the phrase “ATM” was not in her vocabulary. “You need a BayBank card.”
“Will it work with a Mutual Bank Redi-Cash card? It’s on the NYCE system.”
“You don’t have a BayBank card? Everyone has a BayBank card!” bleated CW.
“I’m not a customer at BayBank. I have a card from another bank.”
CW said “But it’s a BayBank card, right?”
“No it’s a Redi-Cash card, but it might work at a BayBank machine.”
“Sorry, sir, you need a BayBank card.”
We went around like this for twenty minutes, until it dawned on me that in the feeble excuse for a brain that CW posessed, the name for any ATM card was that which was beaten into her gray mush by the tee-vee.