50 Common Words That Are Used As Brand Names

TARMAC

Asphalt is known as Tarmac in the UK, Canada and elsewhere, despite being a different substance, and an airport runway is referred to ‘the tarmac’ by many people. Tarmac, short for Tarmacadam, was patented by British chemist Edgar Purnell Hooley in 1902 and the UK-based Tarmac company continues to hold the trademark.

 

DRY ICE

Carbon dioxide in solid form was trademarked in 1925 as Dry Ice by the Dry Ice Corporation, but the term rapidly became generic and the trademark was revoked in 1932. Luckily, the New Jersey-based company survived and is still going strong today.

 

TASER

Taser has become the generic term for a non-lethal electroshock weapon, but it remains a brand name, and owner Axon aggressively protects the trademark, going as far as to challenge journalists who use the word as a verb or in reference to non-Taser products.

 

BAND-AID

A protected trademark that belongs to Johnson & Johnson, Band-Aid is the everyday term for an adhesive bandage in North America and Australia. Hansaplast is used in some parts of Europe, while in the UK it’s simply called a plaster and Band Aid is a charity supergroup from the 1980s.

 

BIRO

What is known as a ballpoint pen in many countries is widely called a Biro in the UK after its inventor László Bíró (pictured), and un Bic in France. Both names are trademarks of French company Société Bic, which launched the world’s best-selling pen in 1950.

 

WITE-OUT

Staying with Société Bic, the firm’s Wite-Out is used by many people in North America as the generic term for correction fluid, while Tipp-Ex, which is also produced and trademarked by the company, has become a popular generic term for the product type in Europe.

 

JIFFY BAG

Padded mailers are known as Jiffy Bags in the UK after the company that first produced them. The mailers were launched in 1964 by the Jiffy Packaging company, and are still produced in the firm’s Cheshire factory.

 

OUIJA BOARD

The Ouija Board was launched in 1892 by entrepreneur Elijah Bond as a fun parlor game, but became popular with spiritualists and others as a means of contacting the departed. Hasbro currently owns the trademark, which was registered in 1950 by William Fuld, the son of one of Bond’s employees.

 

ONESIE

Everyone calls the all-in-one bodysuits that were a major fad a couple of Christmases ago onesies, but the name is actually the intellectual property of US company Gerber Childrenswear, which is all too keen to enforce its trademark.

 

ROLLERBLADE

Rollerblade is a brand of inline skates, but many people think it’s the generic term. Minneapolis-based company Ole Innovative Sport launched the Rollerblade in 1982, and the firm and the brand name are now owned by Nordica, which is part of Italy’s Technica Group.