Re: Xerox & Kleenex (was legality of web links to articles?)

["Mark L. Levinson" <nosnivel -at- netvision -dot- net -dot- il>]

Annamaria writes:
> This is what happens when companies do not aggressively track copyright 
> infringements!  The same fate befell Xerox and Kleenex!  Once the product 
> enters the public domain, there's no getting it back! 

As Sandy notes, the issue for product names is not
copyright but trademark.  But in fact, the names
Xerox and Kleenex are not in the public domain because
their respective companies do aggressively protect 
their trademarks.  Examples of names that were not
well enough protected (in the USA at least, IIRC) are 
aspirin, escalator, and zipper.

Mark L. Levinson
nosnivel -at- netvision -dot- net -dot- il



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