Brand names that have become common words

The Dumpster Brothers? Their last fucking name was Dumpster? Wild that that was just a common last name with no connection to trash for centuries
- Look again, it actually says Dempster
  
  Both words are used, so I understand the confusion; also, sprinkled with a little misspelling:
  
  Dumpster: The Dempster Brorthers, Inc.
  EDIT: Just read the Dumpster Wikipedia page. The Dempster Brothers' had a truck called The Dempster Dumpmaster 😂
  
  On cold nights, we’d gather together around the Dempster fire and discuss how bad things were, we’d share drinks and bond as the we burned the garbage to stay warm on those cold nights. No one could turn away for those Dempster fires as they were amazing to watch. Yep Everyone loved watching those Dempster fires
  
  Look again, it actually says Trumpster
- Wait until you learn about Thomas Crapper, who made major improvements to the modern toilet.
  
  And his name wasn't the origin of the word crap. It was just destiny!
- It's kind of indicative that the courts have bent to corporations on not generciding names for nearly 60 years. How long have dumpsters been so ubiquitous that no one even knew it was a brand? Very Berenstain Bears situation.
- I agree. If dump was a word before (I'll have to check), then dumpster is a simple modification.

Zoom was actually a word before 2011
- Not with that meaning but yes, poor terminology on the visual since it implies it was not.
  
  I suppose the title "brand names that became common words" implies that it was a brandname before being a common word, otherwise the reader should pretty much never assume that.
- Trademarks are context sensitive, and zoom was not used as a term for video calls before that. It is interesting that that's the only one on the list that isn't also a made up word
  
  Über is also not made up 👀
  
  Isn’t google a real thing in numbers.
  
  Where do you draw the line between made up words and non-made up words? It’s not like a supernova explosion creates new words that land on a forming planet so that a billion years later a new sentient species can just pick them up from the ground and start using them.
- True, but it has gained additional meaning and uses. Before 2011, you could not "join a zoom", for example.
- And uber was before 2009.
- The TV series was in 1972
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoom_%281972_TV_series%29?wprov=sfla1
- Not to mention many of these are literally still brand names and have not in fact been ruled generic.
  Oh I see now they've made the generic ones dark grey.

The Jeep one has kind of fallen out of normal use. Like, I wouldn't call a Land Rover or a Bronco a jeep.
- If anything Jeep on this list is backwards. It was originally a generic term for that military style vehicle made by various manufacturers. Then it became its own thing as the Jeep brand. But then Jeep further broadened their offerings ( Cherokee, Patriot, compass, etc) and the Jeep became a wrangler. But when I say I drive a Jeep, everyone assumes specifically a wrangler.
- When I read that my initial thought was more like a military jeep or any boxy army vehicle
  My second thought was that one Mercedes jeep but that’s clearly not a jeep brand
  
  That was the original idea I think. With the existence of SUVs that kind of went out the window.
  The Mercedes is the G-Wagon. Which is quite well known in pop culture as such.
- It's very common in Germany to call off-road vehicles jeeps
- Yeah, I thought the word Jeep originally came from the military initials GP - General Purpose vehicle. The generic term 4x4 (four by four) is pretty common in the UK.

Who says "zoom" as a verb? People say "video chat" or, more realistically, "facetime" for all video chats.
- I've heard a lot of people talk about "zoom meetings" when the meetings are actually held on google meet, or webx.
- I've used Zoom in previous companies to speak to clients, and have never heard anyone use it as a term for video calls. I have absolutely no idea where this has come from, but it's definitely not true...
- I work in tech. Everyone.
- I've met a lot of people who do this through my work from home job
- No one I know would use facetime... That suggests using a phone for a business meeting. Bad angles, shakey image.. very unprofessional.
  For a business meeting you need a computer which means we're zooming, regardless of the platform
- Let's do a zoom meeting can conceivably be on Teams I guess
- Yeah, it seems like facetime would be more at risk for becoming generic. If it weren't for Apple, that is.
- Who says "zoom" as a verb?
  Zoomers.
  
  Zoomers.

Has 'zoom' become a generic term for video calling/conferencing? For example are people saying "let's zoom later on Skype" ?
- Might be a thing with zoomers
  
  I'm perhaps the worst zoomer to ask about zoomer stereotypes, but I haven't noticed my generation doing that. I have noticed my parents doing it though, after the pandemic any app that can do video calls is either "zoom" or "teams" depending on who you ask
- I hear FaceTime used more generically than Zoom (for mobile video chat)
- I've heard people say Google zoom call. 🤪
- I always hear people say “meets”, “FaceTime”, etc.. Zoom is definitely the most popular but I wouldn’t consider a generic term.
- Sometimes my boss will use mention "zoom" when scheduling a virtual meeting between us and clients, but we choose which platform we use and most of us don't use zoom. So its sorta being used like that.
- Bo Burnham's "Welcome To The Internet" already suggested "start a rumor / do a Zoom or / send a death threat to a boomer."

I had no idea that a lot of those were brand names
- That's why when someone says "they have to protect their IP otherwise they lose it", they're full of shit. The bar for losing a trademark is essentially that no one can be reasonably expected to know it was a trademark.

Super Hero is trade marked??? That one was surprising.

When was the last time you heard someone use the term 'Xerox?'
iirc, it's used as another word for clone in some 1980's science fiction.
- Arguably it's a bit dated but I don't think it's gone completely the way of the dinosaur.
  
  The legend I've heard is that the Xerox company built the first PC, complete with mouse, monitor, printer, and keyboard, but couldn't figure out how to market it. They let anyone come and see it, and kids like Jobs and Gates stole it for themselves. Maybe in the future, 'xerox' will mean 'didn't know a good thing when you had it." She dated that guy and dumped him right before he won the lottery. What a xerox!
  
  This aptly describes both paper copying and the name applied to it.
- Probably in the '90s, early 2000s. Usually it would be a teacher saying they needed to go make a Xerox/some xeroxes. I'm pretty sure some of those schools didn't actually have a Xerox-brand machine. I think most people say going to make a copy now, and it doesn't seem to be done nearly as often as it was 10 years ago.
  
  Yup. By the early 00s it was rare to hear someone say xerox something but it was still pretty common in the late 90s. Offices in the military and civilian-military world.
- I sometimes call in to an office to use their facilities and Melanie on reception will almost invariably ask me if I’m there to do some “ex a rock sing” (xeroxing) and I say yes and then ask if the “ex a rock” machine is in the usual place. We’ve been laughing at this one joke for over twenty years. Perhaps we should get out more?
- I mean the last time I heard it was in Bojack Horseman. They had an episode called "Xerox of a Xerox"
  
  I'll have to look that one up
- Last time I heard it was in a dramatic re-enactment of a deposition where the witness did not know the word "photocopy" and the lawyer was not having it.
- It's the name for photocopy in India. Nobody would know what you mean if you say I need a photocopier.
  
  I am reminded of the scene in the first 'Dr. Strange' movie where he goes into an ashram and gets the Wi-Fi password.

No Coke?
- Typical exchange in Texas:
  Person A: Can I have a coke?
  Person B: What kind?
  Person A: Dr Pepper
  
  JOHN: dave i hate to break it to you but it sounds like texas blows.
- As if Coca-Cola would ever allow that to happen. They'd send death squads against the court that even thought about it.
  
  I'm going to watch a Disney! 😄
- Do people really use coke generically? I’ve always thought coke to refer solely to coca-cola. Maybe it’s just a regional thing.
  
  What's the generic term in your area?
  
  Yeo. Root beer coke, Dr pepper coke, "get me a case of coke" "what type?" "Ginger ale" etc
- Using "coke" as a generic word for soft drinks is very regional in the US. In a large part of the country you would get a funny look if you referred to some other brand as a coke. The law office that made this is in Colorado, and it looks like they're solidly in "pop" territory.

I've never heard Google, Uber or Zoom used unless it meant the specific company. "Google" became a verb, but I've never heard of someone saying they googled something on DuckDuckGo, for example.
- "Google it" means look it up on the Internet. My kids don't use Chrome, they use Google (probably call it that because it's the homepage of Chrome).
  I've heard people say they're going to uber home. They sometimes use Lyft.
  And I've definitely heard people say they were on a zoom call even when it was Microsoft Teams or Google ...what is the Google one called again? I don't remember anymore because people will say Google zoom call!!
  
  Citing a comment I've recently seen, it's amazing how humanity managed to produce only one generation actually competent with computers.
  
  TBF it's Google Chrome and it's owned by Google.
  That's like complaining that someone who drives a Jeep Wrangler calls it a Jeep
  
  Interesting! Didn't know they'd become generic terms like that.
  
  A google zoom. (actually its meet)
- I use it exactly like that all the time.
- nice try, google-lawyer.
- You've never heard zoom used as a regular word to mean fast? The word itself is older than the program.
  
  Obviously I mean only in the specific context of "a video conference call."

Vaseline, Velcro, Mace and Styrofoam aren't generic? The fuck? I didn't even know those were trademarked names. Vaseline maybe, but the other three are common enough that I was sure they were generic.
- Petroleum jelly, hook and loop, pepper spray, and polystyrene.
  
  polystyrene-foam
- The one that got me was zipper. What else do you call one?
  
  It was previously commercialized as Lightning Fastener in NA, or hookless fastener in contrast with previous "technology".
  Non-english languages sometimes have other words for it, if they encountered it before the Zipper was widespread. In Spanish we have cremallera and cierre. Old timers say fecho-de-correr or "fecho eclair" in Portuguese, referring to another patent holder Éclair Prestil.
- Velcro brand doesn't want anyone to call the invention Velcro to protect the trademark: https://youtu.be/rRi8LptvFZY

I hope they lose Realtor
- I hope the world loses realtors
  
  That's the only that surprised me, and it's still protected? How does that one work?

Realtor?
That's weirder than Duncan's claim on Yo-Yo getting rejected on a technicality, ninety-nine years late.

I try to avoid using all these names and instead use the more generic names.
- What do you use for zipper, super hero, and trampoline?
  
  I too would like to know.
  Fastener? Meta human? Bouncy springy thingy?
  
  From Wikipedia: A zipper, zip, fly, or zip fastener, formerly known as a clasp locker
  Trampoline: The generic term for the trademarked trampoline was a rebound tumbler
  
  Okay, maybe not all of them but honestly that's because I didn't know they were brand names

Wait, are these the dates when the brand that eventually was deemed a "common word" were first trade marked? I was reading this as the years they were deemed common words.
Cause 2011 is WAYYYY too early for zoom to be common. If anything, that would've been Skype on 2011. Similar thing for Tupperware and zipper.
Also, wtf was heroin's common name before being branded heroin? Lol, also, I can't help but imagine heroin got its name as some kind of "there's a hero in every needle" marketing campaign.
- year the brand name was first introduced.
  It says so in the legend. Zoom has been a word for a long time but it now also means "participate in a (video) teleconference", which is a new meaning directly linked to the zoom software released in 2011. When a word became generic is usually very hard to pinpoint exactly (except for zoom that was 2020)
  For heroin: I don't think there was heroin before the introduction of the heroin brand. Bayer literally invented the substance. (Wikipedia says it was invented 23 years earlier in Britain from morphine, but the inventer didn't do anything with it so it was reinvented later). It was also not a drug you take to get high, it was an over the counter cough suppressant; no needle or spoon or lighter involved. Wild times for sure...
  
  It was diacetyl morphine before Bayer marketed it. Fun fact; the acetyl groups get cleaved before it binds to a receptor so it's just plain old morphine again.
  
  Derp, thanks for pointing out the legend. Totally missed it as I gave the thing a once over.
  But also, obviously this means heroin's name must come from "a hero in every pill"
- It's from the German word "heroisch", which is basically "heroic". They used it being a homonym for "heroine" to use women heroes or Valkyrie in marketing for a bit, because it'll save you from that nasty cough.
  It didn't really go by anything before, since it's not something super easy to make, and so the first people to really make a lot of it was Bayer, and they named it heroin.
  Before heroin people had morphine, and heroin had been made as "diamorphine", but it just wasn't really a thing.
  
  In the 80's there was a brand of cough suppressant pills with codeine (prescription only) called Tussigon, as codeine is a an anti-tussive (anti-cough).

Wait, who owns super hero?
- Both Marvel and DC. Look it up on Wikipedia for more details.
  
  How did they both end up owning it? I checked Wikipedia but don't see where it explains how it happened.
  
  Can't wait to see the Iron Man vs All Might lawsuit

In the UK: Hoover is what everyone called their vacuum cleaner. Can't stop for tea, I have the hoovering to do at home
- Have you ever hoovered schneef?
  
  Nope, had to wet-vac it up cuz people spilled their Tim's on it
  
  Allegedly
- I think it used to be more of a generic word for vacuuming in the US. I used to know a dog named Hoovie. Not sure why that seems to have lessened.

Roomba is a big one that is missing.

Losing yo-yo right before the centennial anniversary is pretty funny.

Aspirin & Heroin: Bayer
lost rights to its trademarks as a result of WWI
Thanks Gavrilo Princip. Do you know how much potential revenue you erased from the Bayer balance sheet?

Hoover
- It's not used as a generic trademark in the US and the chart says it was made by an attorney in the US state of Colorado, presumably for an American audience. There's a chance the creator of the chart has never even heard of a vacuum cleaner being called a "hoover" if it wasn't a Hoover-brand vacuum.
  The first time I saw a Brit mention hoovering their house I misunderstood and thought they were claiming they had made their house float in the air.

I'd maybe add Solo Cups.
- That one is weird for us Aussies since a 'Solo' for us is a local lemon squash drink
  Hearing 'Solo Cup' I just think of a cup of Solo haha
  
  Solo is amazing.
  
  Here it's a big cup, typically at a house party and holding alcohol.

I'll take the low hanging fruit. Kleenex.
- I don't know anyone who calls tissues "Kleenex".
  Wonder if it's regional or generational.
  
  Could be. I'm 42 and from NJ and I'd call them kleenex or tissues interchangeably.

Something I find interesting, lino was replaced by vinyl which was worse and plasticy but cheaper and the name carried over.
Most people when they think of floor lino thinka actually of vinyl rather than the actual original!
- Vinyl is horrible, but I really like LVP. I guess the solution was more vinyl.
- Wait what? Peoole call pvc flooring linoleum?

I'm surprised how long yo-yo lasted
- And that Frisbee still has

I wish this graphic had the old name as well.
- 'Real estate agent'

Chapstick goes all the way back to the 1880's? Holy shit!

That was a good almost 100 year run, yo-yo.

Missing Hoover
- I dunno, I don't know anyone who doesn't call it a vacuum. I know people who own Hoover's and they still call it their vacuum.
  
  That's UK English vs. American English. I think American English might genericise (if that's a word) trademarks more often than UK English, but hoover is one that the UK has that America doesn't.
  
  It has certainly fallen out of favor, similarly to Xerox. It used to be the primary way people referred to vacuum cleaners.
- It's probably American biased. In the US it's commonly called a 'vacuum' or 'vacuum cleaner.' 'Hoover' is not used much in US.
- Only in UK.

Where is hoover
- Congressional cemetery

I suppose a tweet isn’t a Twitter.
- I suppose a toot isn't a Mastodon.
  
  Haha I meant, I guess that’s why Twitter isn’t on the list. Since the name itself didn’t become part of our vocabulary.