TiVo This

The New York Times > Technology > A Noun? A Verb? TiVo Says It's Neither

I found this to be both an interesting and somewhat disturbing article.

That they would not want TiVo to go the way of Kleenex or Xerox surprised me at first since I am not an advertising person. On further reflection, however, I can see why they would not want their brand to become that synonymous with the product as it would effectively kill the brand identity. OK, that is their prerogative.

What I find disturbing is how this seems to fit with ever increasing policing of trademarks and brand identity. In thinking about the above, I came to wonder if Kleenex or Xerox were not just "lazy" in protecting their brands as the article somewhat implies. Rather, would this type of trademark protection not have been seen as out-of-place, inappropriate, and possibly ridiculous 50 or perhaps even 10 years ago?

I'm not sure what else to say about this, but it just appears as another example of the increasingly aggressive protection of trademarks that the current system allows. I wonder when it will get out of hand.

And yes, I realize I am not saying much about why I think this is a bad thing. Maybe for another post.