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Author Topic: Can I say "Experience the power of X," where X is a Trademark Name?  (Read 3216 times)

JSonnabend

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While it may be better in some sense to say "best brand of . . .", it is by no means required and may be overkill.  To say, for example, "Ford Mustang, best car on the road" is almost certainly sufficient.

I understand that in some instances mark owners take the extra step of including "brand", e.g., "Band-Aid brand adhesive bandages".   That kind of language should be balanced against the non-legal marketing considerations, e.g., how does the ad read/look to consumers.

- Jeff
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Kaitlin

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I agree with Jeff. 

In the Band-aid example, "Band-aid" is alliterative with the word "brand" so it does have a certain flow, but I expect the reason for using this phrasing now is to counteract an existing and well-entrenched genericization problem which they might have avoided by not using the term as a noun when the product first came out. 

I know that when I was a kid, everyone I knew used the term "band-aid" generically as the word for a stick-on bandage.  Probably J&J's "Band-Aids" were the only game in town in my extreme youth (we're talking quite a few decades back here), but certainly by the 1960's there were other types of Band-Aid style adhesive bandages on the market, yet the term "band-aid" was already in common usage as the generic term for a "Band-Aid" style adhesive bandage.  (And, frankly, trademark knowledge to the contrary notwithstanding, that's still the "generic" term I use.  "Adhesive bandage" is just too long, and "bandage" by itself brings to mind something much larger involving separate applications of gauze and tape.)
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This post is an off-the-cuff musing and should not be misconstrued as legal advice. THERE IS NO ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN US. Proper legal advice requires full disclosure of facts-not appropriate to a public forum-and attorney research time and effort which has not been expended here.
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