Google and genericization of trademarks

Today I read an article with great interest entitled Google ready to fight genericization. It tells how Google is considering placing advertisements to prevent losing the strength of their trademark. I applaud Google for taking this move.

Trademark holders must enforce their marks, otherwise the marks can lose strength. Additionally, if you do not tell a potential infringer to stop, you may not later be able to halt their use of the mark. Furthermore, and perhaps the worst, is that your mark can become "generic" (more about the various strength of trademarks.)

Becoming ubiquitous and well known can be good for a company. It means that the public is well aware of their mark and brand, and identifies the name with the service or good. It can be a problem to be associated with all uses for the good. Companies often use advertisements to police their brands. They basically put the world on notice that their mark is strong, and cannot be used for the generic use. Some common marks which are often incorrectly used to describe something generic include:

Kleenex (for facial tissues)
Xerox (for copiers)
Coke (for soda)

I've noticed for awhile that many people are now using Google as a verb, as in "I Googled my name to see who's talking about me." This is marginally OK, as long as you intend that you used only Google as your internet search engine. If you used Yahoo, then you were using Google to mean "internet search," and that indicates a weakening of Google's mark.

This ad campaign will start to show that Google is concerned about their brand value, and also to show that they are actively protecting their mark. They have such a good and unique name, that it would indeed sad to see it weaken.

Note: I have been using Google as my preferred search engine since 2000. I try the others on occasion, but Google remains the best for good results.