Example: "I googled him on Yahoo and he seems pretty interesting."
Our lawyers say: Bad. Very, very bad. You can only "Google" on the Google search engine. If you absolutely must use one of our competitors, please...

*groans*

From what I understand, if a company is not aggressive in protecting its trademarks in all cases, no matter how trivial, it loses the ability to protect them in any case, no matter how egregious.

...if a company is not aggressive in protecting its trademarks in all cases, no matter how trivial, it loses the ability to protect them in any case, no matter how egregious.

Ah! I get it. The lawyers have to make a good show of it or lose Google's trademark?

But they're not actually claiming Google's verb usage hurts the brand..?

Yes. At least, in my non-lawyerly understanding. Everyone knows the grandstanding is stupid, but the law requires that they do it.

But in some sense it *is* hurting the brand, in that if it becomes an everyday generic word for "search engine," Google will lose the right to challenge any use of its trademark (I think).

Thanks for the explanation. I feel silly now.

Heh. I only know because I've read so many similar discussions about companies being ridiculous about their trademarks. Don't feel silly.

They do have to defend against everything, but they don't lose the trademark just because it does become a verb. For an example, Hormel still has "Spam" as a trademark even though it has become a term used to describe junk e-mail, and they don't care that much unless someone includes the word into a product "SpamBuster 3000 Extreme" or what have you.

Oh wah fucking wah says I. Frisbee my kleenex.

And sorry about the fleas, Shane.

Do they lose trademark if they don't fight the genericization, though?

"Frisbee my kleenex" is my new favorite phrase.

I've always hated Google as a verb. Partly this is because I've been using search engines much longer than there's been a Google, and partly now also because in my current neighborhood, Google is unmistakably tangible, specifically a big place where you try to wangle lunch invitations as often as possible.

Plus I think it sounds stupid.

I think Google is making utter fools of themselves for not letting this go.

1) how about you frisbee my kleenex to my zipper and google it, you great rotating wankers? (not you shane, the trademark asshats)

2) yes. it sucks. I'm sorry. for the record I grew up in a 130-year-old farmhouse in Warren County (near Lebanon) and we had flea epidemics on a regular basis - which might stem from the fact that my mom is a) ermm... not the world's best housekeeper to put it mildly and b) tends to have many indoor cats at any given moment. fleas, for the record are the Worst. Thing. Ever. bedbugs are bad but at least they don't hassle you day AND night. and no there's absolutely nothing you can do to get rid of them besides spot all the cats (prolly more than once, actually) and bomb the house. repeatedly. keep it out of your food and the kitty food and you should be golden. I dealt with this on a semiannual basis from the time I was six or seven and I haven't grown any third eyeballs or developed any weird syndromes from it. ymmv, of course.

sorry to hear about the flea problem. only thing that could conceivably be worse is bedbugs (and we had those in Baltimore, ugh) and at least those don't crawl on you 24 hours a day like the fleas can and will.

A good problem to have IMHO. (not the bugs)

dunno if i'd characterize the google blog posting as "bitching", per se. essentially all they are saying is if you absolutely must go to burger king, please do not refer to the whoppers and chicken fingers as big macs and mcnuggets. it's a perfectly valid point imho.

see also: genericide