Too Much of a Good Thing? Avoiding Trademark Genericide

• Posted by Geoffrey G. Gussis on August 30th, 2005


• Filed in Intellectual Property

The blawgers over at Farella Braun + Martell LLP report on a recent Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals case dealing with trademark genericide.  The case was remanded back to the trial court but should be an interesting case to watch for corporate counsel who handle trademark matters on a regular basis:

"Can a brand become too well known? In the trademark context, the answer may be “yes.” A trademark can become “generic,” and consequently not subject to trademark protection, if it is used in such a way that it comes to identify a product or class of products rather than the product’s source – such as “kleenex” to denote a facial tissue generally rather than a Kleenex brand tissue. In this way, the failure to use care in the dissemination of a brand can lead to the weakening of the trademark."

Link: Too Much of a Good Thing? | IP Blawg | Farella Braun   Martel.