Yakki burger...

When a nation is so called 'advanced' or 'globalized', I find that there are in their cities American based world wide franchised fast food restaurant or two. One of the most successful company is McDonald's. Although it is a global brand, the company allows countries to have latitude in menu, marketing and management to meet the local optimum. One way to enjoy your travel abroad is to go and try the original McDonald's local menu.

In Japan, there are original menus like Teriyaki Burger, Mega Teriyaki Burger, Bacon Potato Pie. Another menu joined the list recently, Shoga-yaki Burger (pork ginger burger). And I was in McDonald's the other day, and found this poster on the wall. Shocking...

To make the product more familiar to people, they have shortened 'Shoga-yaki Burger' to 'YAKKI'. If the person who was producing this product had some senses in English, he wouldn't have given a food menu such a name. It sound exactly like 'yakky', or similar to 'yucky'. If you just read the Japanese it would sound exactly the same as 'yucky'. On the wrapping paper of the burger YAKKI in Japanese character (ヤッキー) is written all over as the design. Yes, what you are about to eat is all wrapped with 'yucky' around it...

yakky

talkative, noisy

yucky

disgusting, very unpleasant, revolting.

In fact, 'yucky' was one of the first English words that I learnt when I started school in Australia, and my classmate's mother was worried about me saying such word.

The sound of the word means something to me so it would take me an effort to enjoy the pure taste of the food. The word gives influence to what I feel... I wonder if anyone has made a complaint on the naming of this product?

Yahoo! Attempted Genericide

It was not only Bing that attempted genericide. I found this movie on YouTube which campaigns Yahoo's search engine. The title of the commercial, and the final catch phrase is

'Do you Yahoo?'

It clearly uses the trademark in verb form.

Fortunately, it is only attempted genericide.
The trademark is still well and thriving, though it does not line up to top Google...

Bing! Attempted genericide

For Google it is a serious matter that its trademark is on the verge of generification, that it might lose its power as a trademark and become a general verb. The word Google has almost become a synonym 'to search something on the Internet using a search engine'.

For the rival company, Google's popularity is something that they envy and want. Bing is also a search engine like Google, but like Coke and Pepsi rivalry, Bing is a little behind in history for it to compete with Google the great. However, the CEO of the company Steve Ballmer has mentioned in an interview in New York Times in 2009 that he sees potential in the trademark 'to verb up.'

The phrase "Bing it!" has been used in an episode in Hawaii Five-O series, but it did sound a little odd there.

Bing's attempt to gain popularity is the same as risking the life of a trademark -  it's an attempted genericide. Fortunately or unfortunately, it has not verb-ed up yet like Google.

"Bing it"

®.I.P. Escalator (1899 - 1950) Epitaph file 02

®.I.P. Epitaph series 02 Trademarks that unfortunately lost its effect.

Escalator, yes, this was once a trademark of Otis Elevator Company...

Escalator is, as you know, a very convenient moving stairway that transports people from a level to a higher or a lower level. The first working escalator was invented and patented by Jesse W. Reno in 1892, and was installed in Coney Island, Brooklyn in 1896 (the first working escalator). It was then called 'inclined elevator', and it was not for practical use but for amusement at the Old Iron Pier.

The escalator in design as we know today was invented and patented in 1897 by an American inventor Charles Seeberger, who also created the name 'Escalator' from joining two words 'scala', Latin word for steps, and 'elevator', which was already invented before this moving stairway. In 1899, Seeberger joined Otis Elevator Company and developed the first commercial use escalator. The Seeberger - Otis Escalator won the first prize at the Paris 1900 Exposition.

In 1910, Seegerger sold his patent to Otis, and in the following year Otis also bought the Jesse Reno's escalator patent. Since then, Escalator had become the trademark of the Otis product, and enjoyed the dominance for half a century. Other similar manufacturers had to come up with names like 'Motorstair', 'Electric Stairway', 'Moving Stair' to refer to their product.

With the development of high-rise buildings in cities in the first half of the 20th century, this convenient product, escalators, became indispensable and were installed in many places. In 1950, the U.S. Patent Office ruled that the word 'Escalator' had lost its effect as a trademark, and had become a generic term for moving stairways.

In 1922, about 30 years prior to the death, the verb 'to escalate' was born from the trademark Escalator. When a trademark starts to get used as verbs, it is MFD... Marked For Death.

®.I.P. Escalator.

To Skype - Genericide 05

Many of my relatives outside Japan, in the States and in countries in Europe, so Skype is now indispensable in our family communication. The application allows people to communicate via Internet on text, on voice or on video, instantly and most importantly, free if it is Skype-to-Skype calls. It is faster and more instantaneous than e-mail correspondence, cheaper than telephone calls, and the video function makes it more informational than other styles of communication.

Skype application was first released in 2003. Its easiness and convenience, and the widespread use of personal computers and the Internet made the application tremendously popular, so popular that the trademark Skype is on the verge of gerericide, another endangered trademark.

Skype brand name guideline clearly forbids the trademark to be used as a generic word; to write it in the lower case, to use it as a verb (Skype legal brand guidelines). Though stipulated, the reality does not follow what is said. On wikiHow, the trademark, though still written with the upper case, is used as a verb. (wikiHow Skype).

- How to Skype
- Skyping your friends, familiy and co-workers...

Here is another evidence of the peril of the trademark Skype. The two famous talk show hosts of the U.S.A., Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres, use the trademark as verbs when they are conversing on Ellen's show (March 20th 2009). Oprah made a big surprise appearance on Ellen's show via Skype.

Ellen : How is this happening? Are you Skyping in? What's happening?
Oprah : Skyping in, that's exactly what I'm doing.

See, 'Skype' is endangered.

This surprise appearance of Oprah was written as an article in The Huffington Post. In the article, it uses the trademark correctly as the guideline stipulates, but incidentally, another endangered trademark 'Photoshop' is used as a verb (Huffington Post Oprah invites Ellen).

®.I.P. Zipper (1925-1930) Epitaph file 01

®.I.P. Epitaph series 01 Trademarks that unfortunately lost its effect.

Zipper is now common and indispensable fastening item in clothing, luggage, camping and sports goods. It can fasten two edges of materials or flexible items by clasping metal or plastic teeth together. Not many people know that the word "zipper" was once a trademark (I did not know until recently).

The item was invented by an American inventor Whitcomb Judson in 1893, but the product name was not as is now, it was then called a "clasp locker".

The trademark "Zipper", and "Zipper Boots" were first registered by B. F. Goodrich Company in 1925. They used the fastening item in their rubber boots.

The word 'zip' was already in the English vocabulary since the late 19th century as onomatopoeic noun and verb, meaning the sound of a fast moving item or the act of moving very fast. It is said that an executive of B. F. Goodrich Company used to slide the fastener up and down saying "zip 'er up", and the trademark "Zipper" was made.

In 1930, the company sued to protect the trademark but lost, and the word Zipper became just a generic 'zipper'. Genericide victim...

In 1936, a new verb 'to zip' meaning to 'zipper up' something joined the dictionary. And of course because it is a new verb, it inflects in regular form (why it is a regular verb); zip, zipping, zipped, not zap.

Genericide terminal ward - near to death trademarks

There are a lot more victims like Google and Photoshop. I will list here the casualties of genericide. These are trademarks that are protected but still are used as generic word; they are in serious condition, nearly dead... You could say that this entry is the terminal ward of trademarks. I have listed ones that are used not just in English but in Japanese too. It shows how pandemic the generification is.

Band-Aid

Trademark of Johnson and Johnson, first appeared in market in 1920. Its generic name is adhesive bandage.

Ping-Pong

Trademark of Jaques of London, now passed to Parker Brothers. The generic name of the game is, of course, table tennis. In Japan, there was a popular comic with the title "Ping-Pong", and it was make into a film. In Japanese, Ping-Pong refers to a fun, non-sportive game of table tennis, where as 卓球(TAKKYU meaning table tennis) refers to more serious sports game.

Frisbee

Trademark of Wham-O, first appeared in market in 1957. The generic name is flying disc. The product became a skyrocketing hit for being used in a new type of sport.

Jeep

Trademark of Chrysler. The 4-wheel-drive utility vehicle first was used by the US Army in World War II. The civilian model came into the market in 1945. The generic name is SUV (Sport Utility Vehicle), and Chrysler has made advertisements to prevent the trademark to becoming a generic term (They invented "SUV" because they can't call them Jeep.)

Sellotape

Trademark of Sellotape. The generic name is clear adhesive tape. Sellotape appears in both trademark and generic word in dictionaries, and you could say the trademark is, in reality, dead.

These casualties are all result of world-wide popularity... Ironic, isn't it.

To google - why it is a regular verb - Part 1

In my earlier entry Google - worldwide genericide, there was a list of verbs "to google" in other languages, and I noted that all the verbs that show regular verb inflection. Why are they regular verbs? Let me show you here what happens when a new verb enters our language by looking at language acquisition of children learning English as their first language.

Preschool children (age 4 to 6) start talking in sentences, and they also start using their knowledge of morphology quite cleverly and productively. They encounter numerous new words everyday, but they somehow figure out the new words' parts of speech and how to inflect them.

We often see children make errors like breaked or comed - they overgeneralize the regular verb inflection rules to irregular verbs to make past tense. Unfortunately for children acquiring language, ten most frequent verbs in English, which could also be equivalent to ten most frequent verbs that the children need to learn early in life, are all irregular verbs (be, have, do, say, make, go, take, come, see, get). Regular verbs come lower in frequency, but children, when they make past tense, apply productively the regular verb inflection rule, adding -d to the verb, to new verbs they encounter.

Berko (1957) has shown in experiments (so called wug test) with preschool children the over-application of regular inflectional rules of nouns and verbs in nonsense words.

Number of nonsense monosyllabic words were made up, and pictures to represent the nonsense words were drawn on cards. A text, omitting the desired form was typed on each card. Children, and also adult subjects as control group, were shown the cards and the text read, and were induced to say the nonsense word in the inflected form. Here is an example of the question forming past tense.

This is a man who knows how to RICK. He is RICKING. He did the same thing yesterday. What did he do yesterday?
Yesterday, he ..............................

Over 76 percent of the children answered RICKED. They apply the regular inflection rule to the nonsense word. The percentage is higher of adult subjects. They are applying regular suffixing rule to form the past tense.

Inflections of irregular verbs, on the other hand, are memorized, stored in their memory.

In the human mind, the memory and rule interact in a fairly simple way (Pinker 1999) - if a word can provide its own past tense form from memory, the regular rule is blocked, but elsewhere, by default, the rule applies. That's why adults and children can inflect the nonsense word because there are no memorized inflected forms that is stored in the memory.

A new word "to google", which has no memory stored information on its past tense, has to be inflected in regular form.

(to be continued)

Berko, J. (1958) The child's learning of English morphology.  Word, 14, 150-177
Pinker, S. (1999) Words and Rules  New York N.Y. : Harper Perrenial

Google strikes back - the resistance Genericide 04

Companies should be happy if their products are widely used by consumers and rejoice their success, but paradoxically, when their product trademark starts being used widely in a generic sense, the companies' trademark lawyers would furiously start trampling them out. The trademark loses its power when it is generified and defines an action or function that does not specifically refer to the using of the product.

Although they have admitted the word to become a verb, Google has pressured the lexicographers in defining the word. The company specifically wants 'to google' to mean

'to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web'

and Webster has done so in defining the word (Merriam Webster). So by definition, it does not include search with YAHOO or Bing or any other search engine (but unfortunately it does not faithfully reflect the reality).

In 2006, the year when the word 'google' entered dictionaries, Google clearly stated in their official blog (which seems to me an unavailing try) the guidelines for proper using of the word 'google' (Do you google.).　The company also has successfully pressured and made Sweden remove the word 'ogooglebar' meaning 'ungooglable' in English from their language vocabulary (Ungoogleable removed from list of Swedish words). The Language Council of Sweden was pressured from Google on the definition of the word, and the council was fed up with the language controlling from Google that they decided to drop the word, and shows their displeasure towards the giant.

Google trademark lawyer is constantly fighting with the uncontrollable evolution of the word (Google calls in the 'language police').

Whether the company tops want it or not, when words start evolving among people, it is unstoppable, language is a natural object.

to Photoshop - Genericide 02

Photoshop is a trademark of Adobe, and it is a widely used photo manipulation software. This trademark has become a victim of genericide, and it is commonly used as a verb too. Internet articles and tabloids talk about "photoshopped celebrities". Here are some examples of article titles with Photoshop used as a verb.

21 Celebrities before and after they were Photoshopped.
(http://www.lifebuzz.com/photshopped-celebrities/)

This is what happens when you Photoshop celebrities into your holiday party.
(http://twistedsifter.com/2012/03/photoshopping-celebrities-into-holiday-party/)

Tool reveals how much celebs and models are Photoshopped.
(http://www.boredpanda.com/photoshopped-celebrities-before-after/)

Although flattered by the popularity of the software and the usage of the trademark, Adobe does not allow the trademark to be used as common nouns or verbs. The company has press released the guidelines of the usage of the trademark.
https://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressmaterials/pdfs/photoshop_guidelines_pr.pdf

The official release does not seem to have stopped the abuse. There is now an entry of 'Photoshop' in Merriam Webster Dictionary.

transitive verb
to alter (a digital image) with Photoshop software or other image-editing software especially in a way that distorts reality (as for deliberately deceptive purposes)

As a generic verb, it also carries a touch of negative nuance. According to the dictionary, the first known use was in 1992.

Words, or language is a natural object. When it starts evolving, it cannot be stopped.

Kleenex, Xerox, Hoover and Walkman - Genericide 01

A new product comes into our life, we find it very practical and easy to use that it soon becomes indispensable. Kleenex tissue, Xerox photocopy machine, Hoover vacuum cleaner and Walkman portable music player are some examples of that kind of essential goods.

What is notable about the examples given above is that Kleenex, Xerox, Hoover and Walkman are brand names or trademarks, but the names have become common nouns because of their popular usage to refer to the generic name of the product. One can say 'pass me some Kleenex' to mean 'pass me some tissue paper', and likewise, Xerox means photocopy, Hoover a vacuum cleaner, and Walkman a portable music player. Xerox and Hoover can also be used as verbs.

'Would you go and Xerox these for me?'

'Just leave the broken pieces there, I'll Hoover them right away.'

Walkman, officially, only refers to portable music players made by Sony, but most people use it to refer to portable music players no matter if it is a product of KENWOOD.

These are called genericide, a legal term, which refers to once brand names or trademarks turned into common nouns. They have not lost their validity as proper trademark nouns but they have died as trademarks. They refer to not only their brands but also to same functioning products made by other companies. That's why the term has -cide ending.

It is ironic for the companies - the products have become so well known and popularly used but the brands name or the trademarks have also become too popular that they can refer to other products. The companies try in every way to stop the genericide of their brand names or trademarks.

Becoming too popular can be a double-edged sword.