iPod joining Kleenex, Xerox as 'generic' names to describe category?

Posted Mar 31st 2006 3:22PM by Sarah Gilbert
Filed under: Products and Services, Law, Consumer Experience, Apple Inc (AAPL)

is this creative zen mp3 player synonymous
with apple's ipod?

Xerox ® and Kleenex ® have been fighting for decades to protect their intellectual property. Their assertion, that their trademarked names are not nouns (it's a Xerox ® copy, and a Kleenex ® tissue), has been maintained despite every common usage evidence to the contrary, whereas words like Band-Aid and Aspirin have faded into 'generic' status, losing their trademarks.

iPod, surely, is headed that direction. When my sister asked for an iPod for Christmas, I immediately thought, but does she want an iPod ® player? Or an iPod? Apple may have some serious work to do to protect its IP, what with the ubiquity of white-colored iFakes from makers like Creative and SanDisk. This article from TechNewsWorld wonders if "MP3 player and iPod may become synonymous." I'd argue that it's already happened. Even iPod's silhouette ad style is being ripped off from here to my friend's Christmas cards.

What do you think? Are iPod and MP3 player synonymous? And should Apple spend big to protect their trademark from generocide?

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