STETSON
Stetson has come to mean any kind of classic cowboy hat, but the word is actually a brand name. The John B. Stetson Company, which was once the world’s largest hatmaker, went bankrupt in 1986 and the brand is now owned by a company called Hat Brands.
ASTROTURF
Artificial turf is known the world over as AstroTurf, a brand name owned by Germany’s SportGroup. The product, which was invented in 1965, was sold under the name ‘ChemGrass’ for a brief period.
LAUNDROMAT
The term laundromat seems as generic as they come, but this word was also a trademark way back when. The Westinghouse Electric Corporation trademarked the word in 1952 but, fighting a losing battle against its genericization, allowed the trademark to expire in 1993.
Q-TIPS
Cotton swabs are known as cotton buds in the UK and Commonwealth countries, but people in the US and Canada frequently call them Q-Tips after the market-leading brand, which is owned by Unilever. The Q-Tip brand dates from the 1920s and was originally called Baby Gays.
FLIP PHONE
When you had one of these handsets back in the 2000s, it’s unlikely you called it a clamshell. Flip Phone was in fact a Motorola trademark, which was allowed to expire, while clamshell is the proper generic term that few people use.
MACE
The first commercial tear gas in a can, Mace was invented in 1965 by Pittsburgh chemist Allan Lee Litman after one of his wife’s friends was mugged. The brand name has since become a generic term for all defensive sprays, yet the trademark is still valid.
LAVA LAMP
The groovy colored wax-filled lamp that was all the rage in the 1960s was invented by British accountant Edward Craven-Walker in 1963 and trademarked not long after. Today, though the name has been genericized, two companies share trademark rights: UK firm Mathmos and an American company called Lifespan Brands.
APP STORE
App store has come to mean any online store that allows users to browse and download apps, but the term was originally a trademark owned by Apple. The tech giant sued Amazon in 2012 for use of the word, but dropped the lawsuit and relinquished the trademark the following year.
REALTOR
In recent years, an increasing number of people in the US and Canada have been referring to real estate brokers as Realtors. However, this isn’t a generic term, as the word is a protected trademark of America’s National Association of Realtors.
TRAMPOLINE
Believe it or not, trampoline was once a brand name – the proper generic term for the contraption is actually a rebound tumbler. The first modern trampoline was made in 1936 by US gymnast George Nissen and his trainer Larry Griswold, and trademarked not long after, but the trademark was lost once the word became generic.
