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A generic trademark, also known as a genericized trademark or proprietary eponym, is a trademark or brand name that has become the generic name for, or synonymous with, a general class of product or service, usually against the intentions of the trademark's holder. A trademark is said to become ''genericized'' when it began as a distinctive product identifier but has changed in meaning to become generic. A trademark typically becomes "genericized" when the products or services with which it is associated have acquired substantial market dominance or mind share such that the primary meaning of the genericized trademark becomes the product or service itself rather than an indication of source for the product or service. A trademark thus popularized has its legal protection at risk in some countries such as the United States and United Kingdom, as its intellectual property rights in the trademark may be lost and competitors enabled to use the genericized trademark to describe their similar products, unless the owner of an affected trademark works sufficiently to correct and prevent such broad use.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Genericized trademark )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Overview of Trademark Law ) "Under some circumstances, terms that are not originally generic can become generic over time (a process called "genericity"), and thus become unprotected."〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=How Long Does a Trademark Last? )〕 Aspirin,〔(Bayer Co. v. United Drug Co., 272 F. 505 (S.D.N.Y. 1921) ), Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, accessed March 25th, 2011〕 heroin〔(Online Etymology Dictionary )〕 and thermos〔''King-Seeley Thermos Co. v. Aladdin Indus., Inc.'', 321 F.2d 577 (2d Cir. 1963); see also (this PDF )〕 are examples of trademarks that have become genericized in the US. Genericization or "loss of secondary meaning" may be either among the general population or among just a subpopulation, for example, people who work in a particular industry. Some examples of the latter type from the vocabulary of physicians include the names Luer-Lok (Luer lock), Phoroptor (phoropter), and Port-a-Cath (portacath), which have genericized mind share (among physicians) because (1) the users may not realize that the term is a brand name rather than a medical eponym or generic-etymology term, and (2) no alternative generic name for the idea readily comes to mind. Most often, genericization occurs because of heavy advertising that fails to provide an alternative generic name or that uses the trademark in similar fashion to generic terms. Thus, when the Otis Elevator Company advertised that it offered "the latest in elevator and escalator design," it was using the well-known generic term "elevator" and Otis's trademark "Escalator" for moving staircases in the same way. The Trademark Office and the courts concluded that, if Otis used their trademark in that generic way, they could not stop Westinghouse from calling its moving staircases "escalators", and a valuable trademark was lost through ''genericization''. The pharmaceutical industry affords some protection from genericization of trade names due to the modern practice of assigning a nonproprietary name for a drug based upon chemical structure. Brand-name drugs have well-known nonproprietary names from the beginning of their commercial existence, even while still under patent, preventing the aforementioned problem of "no alternative generic name for the idea readily comes to mind". For example, even when Lipitor was new, its nonproprietary name, atorvastatin, was well known. Examples of genericization before the modern system of generic drugs include aspirin, introduced to the market in 1897, and heroin, introduced in 1898; both were originally trademarks of Bayer AG. A different sense of the word ''genericized'' in the pharmaceutical industry refers to products whose patent protection has expired. For example, Lipitor was genericized in the U.S. when the first competing generic version was approved by the FDA in November 2011. In this same context, the term ''genericization'' refers to the process of a brand drug losing market exclusivity to generics. ==Trademark erosion== (詳細はantonomasia related to trademarks. It happens when a trademark becomes so common that it starts being used as a common name〔Littré〕 ''and'' the original company has failed to prevent such use. Once it has become an appellative, the word cannot be registered any more; this is why companies try hard not to let their trademark become too common, a phenomenon that could otherwise be considered a successful move since it would mean that the company gained an exceptional recognition. Vaseline (out of the USA) and Hoover (The Hoover Company) are two examples of brands that failed to prevent trademark erosion, while Nintendo is an example of a brand that successfully fought trademark erosion, having managed to replace excessive use of its name by the then-neologism game console. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「generic trademark」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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