Assessing Trademarks: From Distinctiveness To Genericide

Nisha Singh, Amity Law School Noida

ABSTRACT

Trademarks are important assets for companies because they help distinguish their goods from rivals, establish brand awareness, and provide consumers with a feeling of security and trust in the product's quality and consistency. However, trademarks can sometimes become detrimental to companies. This occurs when trademarks are genericized. The term "genericide" is a process through which a brand gets so widely used for a product that it loses its trademark status or distinguishing power—for example in case of Brands like Escalator, Band-Aid, Trampoline. As a result, excessive trademark usage may end up damaging the owners and their companies. For example, when a trademark becomes too generic, it may constitute a substantial danger to properly enforcing trademark rights, resulting in severe direct and indirect losses for the trademark owner. In this retrospective, the article highlights its various types of impact on businesses like loss of distinct character; the use of brand name by competitors to describe their products or services without legal consequences, public confusion, and ultimately dilution of the brand identity etc. This situation is further explained using various landmark cases. Furthermore, the article intends to critically examine the reasoning behind Genericide, and the legal position of the United States of America and European Union to tackle this issue. Finally, it will suggest some ways that can be used to prevent trademark genericide.

Keywords: Businesses, Customers, Genericide, Intellectual Property Rights, Trademarks.