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A Occasionally a company's brand name becomes so deeply ingrained in the minds of everyday consumers that it enters the popular lexicon of its time and becomes a catch-all term for the generic product or activity in question. At first glance, this might appear to be the pinnacle of successful marketing. Indeed, companies around the world spend billions of dollars every year conjuring up catchy jingles, memorable catch phrases and cute characters in an effort to ensure their brand is the first to spring into consumers' minds when those consumers realise they require a particular product or service.

[p:a] 有时，一个公司的品牌名称会深深根植于普通消费者心中，成为当时流行语汇的一部分，进而泛指该产品或活动的通用称谓。乍看之下，这似乎正是成功的营销巅峰之作。事实上，全球各地的企业每年都会投入数十亿美元，精心打造引人注目的广告曲调、令人难忘的口号和可爱的形象角色，以确保当消费者意识到自己需要某种特定产品或服务时，品牌的第一个念头就是出现在他们脑海中。

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B For those companies whose brand names travel too far into the public domain, however, there can be serious repercussions:namely, losing their right to trademark that particular brand. This can occur because in many jurisdictions,such as the United States, companies have a responsibility to ensure their brand names do not pass into broad popular usage, a process known in the legal industry as 'genericisation' or more candidly, genericide.According to a Harvard law school overview on the subject，'a word will be considered generic when, in the minds of a substantial majority of the public, the word denotes a broad genus or type of product and not a specific source or manufacturer'. In arriving at a conclusion, courts typically examine dictionary definitions, use of the term in the media, and consider whether or not the company has attempted to restrain usage of its trademark. If the court deems the word to be generic, trademark privileges are stripped; no company has an automatic right to continue renewing its trademarks without an end date.

[p:b] 然而，对于那些品牌名称已过度进入公共领域的公司而言，可能会面临严重后果：即失去对该特定品牌的商标权。这种情况可能发生在许多司法管辖区，例如美国，因为这些地区要求企业确保其品牌名称不会被广泛公众使用，这一过程在法律界被称为“通用化”（genericization），或更直白地说，就是“通用化”。根据哈佛法学院对此问题的概述，“当大多数公众认为某个词语指代的是一个广泛的产品类别或类型，而非特定来源或制造商时，该词语即被视为通用词”。法院在作出判断时，通常会参考词典定义、媒体中的使用情况，并评估该公司是否曾试图限制其商标的使用。如果法院认定该词语属于通用词，则商标权益将被剥夺；任何公司均无自动权利继续续展商标，除非有明确的终止日期。

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C Over the years, numerous companies have fallen victim to this common and unwanted marketing phenomenon, losing their prized brand names and subsequent loss of trademark status. Otis Elevator Company lost their trademark rights to 'escalator' in a 1950 court case after being found guilty of using the term generically in their own patents and advertising. In 1965, a court ruled that 'yo-yo' was ingrained in common speech, and the Duncan Yo-yo Company subsequently had their trademark revoked.Kerosene,zipper, thermos, and the Philips-head screwdriver round out the list of household goods now in the public domain.

[p:c] 多年来，许多公司都曾遭遇这一常见且令人不快的营销现象，导致其珍贵的品牌名称丧失，并随之失去商标保护地位。1950年，奥的斯电梯公司因在自身专利和广告中将“escalator”（自动扶梯）一词作为通用术语使用而被判定有罪，最终失去了该词的商标权。1965年，法院裁定“yo-yo”（悠悠球）已深植于日常语言之中，随后邓肯悠悠球公司也被撤销了商标注册。煤油、拉链、保温瓶以及飞利浦螺丝刀等家用商品也陆续成为公共领域的物品。

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D Genericisation is not an unstoppable process, however, and there are strategies that companies can adopt in order to maintain control of their brand names and avoid them becoming generic. One such strategy is for companies to invent a generic term of their own, which is particularly useful for those businesses that have invented unique products for which no existing terminology is available. In the early 1990s, for example, Nintendo so thoroughly dominated the market for video games that many consumers began referring to all such devices as 'Nintendos'. In response, the company promoted the generic term 'games console', which eventually gained traction and rescued the brand from following the same route as the escalator and the zipper. The Griswold-Nissen company were not so fortunate, however, when they attempted to promote the trampoline as a 'rebound tumbler' -the generic term never caught on and they eventually lost their trademark.

[p:d] 然而，品牌通用化并非不可阻挡的过程，企业可以采取一些策略来保持对自身品牌名称的控制，避免其被通用化。其中一种策略是企业自行创造一个通用术语，这在那些已开发出独特产品、且现有术语无法适用的企业中尤为有效。例如，在20世纪90年代初，任天堂在电子游戏市场占据绝对主导地位，以至于许多消费者开始将所有此类设备统称为“任天堂”。对此，公司推出了“游戏机”这一通用术语，最终获得广泛认可，成功使品牌避免了与“自动扶梯”和“拉链”一样被大众随意使用的发展路径。但格里斯沃尔德-尼森公司却遭遇了类似困境：他们试图将蹦床推广为“反弹杯”，这一通用术语始终未能流行，最终导致其商标被撤销。

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E Other companies have attempted to advise broadcasting services, language authorities and the broader public on the appropriate use of their brand name. The Internet search engine Google, fearing that widespread use of the verb 'to google' could result in future legal trouble, has contacted journalists, dictionaries and even the Swedish Language Council in an effort to avert genericide. In 2006, the company sent out a plea for everyone to please only use 'Google' when you're actually referring to Google Inc. and our services'. In a similar vein, Xerox corporation was able to successfully encourage users to eschew the verb 'to xerox 'in favour of a generic expression, 'to photocopy', and it was helped to its goal by a series of snappy ads including: 'You can't Xerox. But we don't mind at all if you copy a on a Xerox copier.'

[p:e] 其他公司也曾试图向广播服务、语言机构以及广大公众说明如何正确使用其品牌名称。互联网搜索引擎谷歌担心“to google”这一动词的广泛使用可能引发未来的法律纠纷，因此已联系记者、词典甚至瑞典语言委员会，以防止“通用化”现象。2006年，该公司发出呼吁，建议人们在指代谷歌公司及其服务时，仅使用“Google”。类似地，施乐公司成功鼓励用户避免使用“to xerox”这一动词，转而采用“to photocopy”这一通用表达，并通过一系列简洁有力的广告助其实现目标，例如：“你不能用复印机复印，但我们完全不介意你用复印机复制。”

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F Although it is very unusual, it is possible for a trademark that has become generic to be Recaptured from the public domain. Two examples of this are the sewing machine manufactured, Singer and the type company, Goodyear. In both cases, however, many years elapsed from the time that the trademark became generic until it was recaptured. In each case, the company was required to prove that their brand name was identified in the minds of the public as belonging to their particular brand, rather than as generic name for all such products.

[p:f] 尽管极为罕见，但一个已变得通用的商标仍有可能从公共领域中重新被收回。两个例子是制造缝纫机的辛格公司（Singer）和轮胎公司固特异（Goodyear）。然而，在这两种情况下，商标从成为通用名称到被重新收回之间都经过了许多年。在每种情况下，该公司都必须证明其品牌名称在公众心中已被明确识别为属于其特定品牌，而非泛指所有此类产品的一般性名称。

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G In the end, however, language is owned by the community that uses it, and with the growth of the Internet in particular, this community is becoming ever more global. Consequently, it is becoming increasingly difficult for brand managers to monitor and curb inappropriate uses of brand names. 'Things have certainly changed,' says trademark specialist Nigel Jennings, who once wrote hundreds of letters admonishing writers for referring to 'rollerblades' or 'rollerblading' instead of the generic term, inline skating. 'If something becomes generic becomes everyone ignored your request, well, that's just fact. You're like King Canute, you've failed.'

[p:g] 然而，最终语言属于使用它的社区，而随着互联网的不断发展，这一社区正变得越来越全球化。因此，品牌管理者越来越难以监控和遏制对品牌名称的不当使用。“情况确实发生了变化，”商标专家尼格尔·詹宁斯表示，他曾经写过数百封信，警告作家们不要用“轮滑鞋”或“轮滑”这样的说法，而应使用更通用的术语“轮滑”。他说：“一旦某事物成为通用词，所有人的请求就会被忽视，这完全是事实。你就像卡努特国王一样，已经失败了。”