Comments on: To Verb Or Not To Verb?

By: Steve Baird

Steve Baird — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:19:24 +0000

Marc, this is a great post and topic, thanks for sharing your perspective.

While I can appreciate the business and marketing benefits of “verbing” brands, properly done, I don’t see how true genericide can be good under any circumstances because it opens up what once was a protectable name to one that can freely be used by anyone, most importantly, direct competitors.

So, it is hard to imagine how Otis Elevator (once the owner of a brand called Escalator) could be happy that “escalator” is now a common dictionary term with no brand meaning whatsoever. Most people probabably don’t even know the history or attribute the generic escalator term to Otis, so where is the benefit of true genericide?

Having said that, as a trademark lawyer, I recognize that the most common legal advice is not to “verb” brands, period, to avoid the “slipper slope” of genericide, and there are definately large companies flirting with “verbing” their brands, so my contention is lawyers need to find creative ways to not get in the way of the business and marketing benefits of “verbing,” but at the same time take creativ legal steps to prevent genericide.

So, the goal, it seems to me, is to reap the benefit, but avoid the certain brand death of genericide — that can be and is a delicate balance, but I believe the balance is possible to strike, when trademark types and marketing types are working in very close collaboration.

If you’re interested, I have posted a series of three articles on this topic in a Just Verb It? series: (1) http://www.duetsblog.com/2009/07/articles/just-verb-it-part-iii-testing-the-slippery-slope-of-using-brands-as-verbs/; (2) http://www.duetsblog.com/2009/06/articles/just-verb-it-part-ii-a-legal-perspective-on-using-brands-as-verbs/; (3) http://www.duetsblog.com/2009/06/articles/just-verb-it-a-legal-perspective-on-using-brands-as-verbs-part-i/.

By: Marc

Marc — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 10:18:40 +0000

@Promotional Products

My intention of this post was to raise the question whether genercide is good or bad. Some brands need it, others perhaps not.

I think it is dependant of brand targets.

By: Promotional Products

Promotional Products — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 08:17:49 +0000

Building a brand is one of the most important aspects of a successful business. This post almost make it seem like a bad thing to genercide one brand, however, even if people are violating a trademark or copyright the brand should be happy that they are being talked about and sticking in consumers minds.

By: Marc

Marc — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:35:22 +0000

First I would say a good name helps. To be honest, I think Microsoft did a good job choosing Bing for their search engine. A simple, powerful word.

Secondly, you want people to associate the (brand)name with the action.

With that in mind you can work on building your brand into a verb.

But keep in mind, an important question is whether you want to prevent genericide or claim the action.

A funny, but on-the-spot movie made by Collegehumor. says it all (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0MKdjG1F_c)

By: Igor

Igor — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:49:47 +0000

This is true:
Turning a brand into a verb will (actively pursuing this or letting it happen) could create an increase and long term top of mind awareness

But now how to do that…

Cheers