@Dabz
I am not agreeing to what happens with "trademarks", "names" etc.
"Generic" terms should not be "registerable" ... what when is "generic" really "generic" ?
This sooner or later leads to "Apple" (the company).
For me "Apple" should not be something you could register. They should allow "Apple Software Incorporated" (or so) -- and need to ensure it does not get shortened more and more "Apple Incorporated" ... "Apple Inc." ... "Apple".
Nor should games be able to get called "Apple", "Hammer", "Asteroids" ... or maybe even "Civilization", "Populous", ...
As I understood trademarks it is easier to register generic terms for something NOT connected to the category of the term.
"Apple" for software
"Unicorn" for hardware
"Banana" for electronic boards
...
The issue I have here is not necessarily the simplicity of the registered words ... but that as soon as a company gets "popular" it often recognizes that it needs to ensure it "protects" its rights (if it does not (try to) protect them, they loose their rights on it ... one of the reasons why "Nintendo" sues so many people). So "Apple" sues "Sweet Apple" or whatever people name their cafés, their fruit shakes, ...). Even if the brand is in a different (nizza) category.
Regarding "hoover" -- it is not such a big brand here in Germany, we have "Tempo" (paper tissues), "Maggi" (Maggi is a brand - famous for "Maggiwürze" - a brownish sauce tasting a bit like "Levisticum officinale" - Lovage in English - it tasted so similar to it that people call "Maggikraut" / "maggi herb") ... even diapers are often subsummarized as "Pampers".
People call them genericized trademarks. "Aspirine" is surely well known too.
Another important genericized tradmark is "app store" (by Apple Inc)
In my game TVTower I am not allowed to use original movie names, original actor names, ... as my game would benefit from them ... the popularity of "their" names would rub off on my little game. So - in the lights of "laws" - they would need to be compensated for it (I would need to contract with every actor, with every movie distributor ... to gain allowance to use THEIR names, titles...). Yet I am allowed to use "generic" movie titles -- so if a Sharkmovie was called "Shark" I was able to use it without asking.
BUT ... I would not be allowed to use their "story summary" - as this might be "advanced" enough to be protectable -- similar to copying a poem without allowancy).
Just to clarify: we asked lawyers about this ... so it is not based on some personal google-search-research
You might know similar stuff from sport league names, logos ... in games.
One could write so much about this stuff ... but we are not able to change it that easily - maybe it needs more time (similar to free open source software ... which gets more and more accepted - even commercially).
bye
Ron
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