Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Don't Say Velcro (2017)

velcro.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 175 posts

Re: Don't Say Velcro (2017)

#161

Post by qingcharles »

ajcp wrote: post #154
janci wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same as LEGO brick controversy. Supposedly the bricks are not Legos, LEGOs and certainly not legos. At least per their legal dept.

I think it's a North American thing to call anything LEGO "Legos", denoting that it is a thing made up of many pieces of "Lego" right? In Europe if you pointed to a LEGO set or a pile of LEGO pieces every response you'd get would be "that's LEGO". But then again in Europe, or at least in Germany, we had many different brands to choose from for the same kind of construction play, whereas in North America it seemed lik…

I agree, in the UK I never heard them referred to as "Legos" and only ever heard that in American media. It always felt like one of those sloppy contractions Americans use, like "Do you wanna go with?" and "I'll write him"

Re: Don't Say Velcro (2017)

#162

Post by bitwize »

Dwedit wrote: post #150
bitwize wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again, Control Deck was how they branded their own products. In the 90s they ran advertisements advising people to refer to their competitors' products as game consoles. I don't remember anyone using the term "Control Deck" to refer to the console. Nintendo also referred to their cartridges as Game Paks, another term not used outside official Nintendo materials (including Nintendo Power). Everybody just called them c…

The famous 1990 ad saying "There's no such thing as a Nintendo" https://images.nintendolife.com/16326a1099812/no-such-thing-... does not mention "Consoles". Do you know of any 90s Nintendo ads that do use the word Console?

It was one of those things I could've sworn I saw at the time. It would've been later than that one, and I swear it was Nintendo urging the use of the term console. It could be something else, or I might be misremembering entirely.

Re: Don't Say Velcro (2017)

#163

Post by bombcar »

vel0city wrote: post #148
JohnFen wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. I don't think that "coke" on its own can be trademarked because it's an actual common word (a form of coal). The trademark would have to be the word in combination with other aspects that make it distinctive. The color scheme, or font, or associated decorative elements, for instance. "Coca-Cola", however, is distinctive on its own and is trademarkable as such.

The Coca-Cola Company absolutely has a registered trademark of Coke for a ton of different products. https://www.gerbenlaw.com/trademarks/food-companies/coca-col... Trademarks are all about context. Exxon used to have a cartoon tiger as a mascot who sometimes looked a bit like Tony the Tiger. This was usually fine because the contexts were pretty different, one was for foods and one was for gasoline, radically differ…

I’ve noticed more of laces don’t even ask “Is Pepsi ok?” which might be where things start to fall apart.

Re: Don't Say Velcro (2017)

#164

Post by JohnFen »

ajcp wrote: post #154
janci wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same as LEGO brick controversy. Supposedly the bricks are not Legos, LEGOs and certainly not legos. At least per their legal dept.

I think it's a North American thing to call anything LEGO "Legos", denoting that it is a thing made up of many pieces of "Lego" right? In Europe if you pointed to a LEGO set or a pile of LEGO pieces every response you'd get would be "that's LEGO". But then again in Europe, or at least in Germany, we had many different brands to choose from for the same kind of construction play, whereas in North America it seemed lik…

There are several different brands of LEGO-compatible bricks in the US. In practice, though, the bricks are called "legos" generically, whether they're LEGO or not.

Re: Don't Say Velcro (2017)

#167

Post by gumby »

compiler-guy wrote: post #146
gumby wrote: post #89

« Velcro » is just roughly short for “hook (and) loop” in French (Velour et crochet — velvet and hook). So why not use the abbreviation? Trademarking it is like trademarking any common word, like Windows. Actually I do have some sympathy; from working at Xerox I somehow was convinced to say “photocopy” (not that anyone uses either expression any more). And I always say “web search” because I don’t want to endorse or…

"Velcro" wasn't a common word, and was not short for "hook and loop" when the company trademarked it. They coined the term. They are desperately trying to make it _not_ the abbreviation this comment claims it to be. Quite like "kleenex" in that way. Normal people generally shouldn't care what the company's legal team wants or thinks--this campaign certainly doesn't stop me from using the term generically--but if the…

> Velcro" wasn't a common word, and was not short for "hook and loop" when the company trademarked it. They coined the term.

You're arguing against a claim I didn't make. I simply said it's an abbreviation for a French phrase (the inventor was a French speaking swiss). Contractions of this sort are more common in French than straight acronyms, which tend to be more common in English. I didn't say it was some pre-existing word.

Re: Don't Say Velcro (2017)

#168

Post by theragra »

wazoox wrote: post #68
bradley13 wrote: post #5

Reminds me of the dark ages, when Xerox was so dominant in the copier market that people used their brand as a noun and a verb. They were threatened with loss of their trademark, because it had become so generic. So they had a massive publicity campaign, asking people to say "copy" instead of "xerox". Is this a uniquely US thing? In the UK, people always say "hoover" instead of "vacuum".

In France many trademarks became generic names: Frigidaire and its abbreviated form frigo is the standard name for a refrigerator (nobody ever says "réfrigérateur"). Kleenex is the standard word meaning "paper handkerchief". Sopalin is the standard word for "roll of paper towels". Many automotive parts are called from a brand name too : "Delco" is the only name an igniter is ever called; a flexible black tube is alwa…

In Russian we also do this 1uite a lot. Xerox, google and photoshop are absolutely normal for activities. Also, thermos for vacuum flask. Dandy is a term for NES clones. doshirak or rolton for ramen noodles. Fairy for dish washing liquid.

Sure, it is also klaxon, cellophane and scotch.

Interesting, that champagne is the only case I know that won the fight. My friends often say sparkling wine for generic brands.

Re: Don't Say Velcro (2017)

#169

Post by krisoft »

Fuzzwah wrote: post #159
Fatnino wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on nothing but my gut: Velcro is the right word. Xerox is acceptable but not what I reach for first. Kleenex just sounds wrong. It's tissue and always has been. Maybe it's a regional thing? NorCal.

Of course it's a regional thing. There's many examples from around the world. For many in Britain "hoover" is synonymous with vacuum cleaners, and "tannoy' for loud speaker / public address system.

In hungary the brand name of KUKA (of orange robot arm fame) become genericized to mean any kind of trash bin. I heard it happened because they produced the first widely used garbage trucks in Hungary and they had their brand name written on the trucks (or perhaps even on the garbage cans, depending on where you read the story). So much so that the garbage trucks are called “kukás autó”, and the profession of garbage collection itself is just called “kukás”.

A long long time ago I built a robot out of a garbage can to celebrate this weird connection: https://youtu.be/LFD63moEUkw?si=qDQ54dVNIvOG8nrM

Re: Don't Say Velcro (2017)

#170

Post by Arrath »

danaris wrote: post #97
Faaak wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Correct: The image was enhanced with Adobe® Photoshop® Elements software. Dumb question: how would you pronounce this if you were saying it ? Specifically the ® symbol ?

Silly-but-true answer: When I'm reading stuff like that aloud and wish to both be silly and make a point, I just read it as "registeredtrademark", very fast. Serious answer: You don't. You just leave it out in speech.

Reference the end of radio advertisements where they blast through the tiny text very quickly.
Post reply on HN