Don't Say Velcro (2017)

I think this is one of those weird cases where they have to tell you the opposite of what they actually want, for legal reasons.<p>I think VELCRO(r) actually DOES want everybody to use their name the way it is commonly used - it&#x27;s good for brand recognition.<p>But legally, retaining control of their brand requires them to clearly defend it from such generic use. This post is an example of that. If someone is using their brand in a way they don&#x27;t want (like on a product not made by them), they can win a trademark case in court by pointing to posts like this.

Related, Google wrote a blog post[1] on a similar topic in 2006. As far as I know they&#x27;ve successfully avoided genericide and a 2017 lawsuit[2] ended with a ruling in their favor.<p>Also, unsurprisingly, Adobe has a whole section in their trademarks page about photoshopping[3]:<p>&gt; Correct: The image was enhanced with Adobe® Photoshop® Elements software.<p>&gt; Incorrect: The image was photoshopped.<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;googleblog.blogspot.com&#x2F;2006&#x2F;10&#x2F;do-you-google.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;googleblog.blogspot.com&#x2F;2006&#x2F;10&#x2F;do-you-google.html</a><p>[2]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Google_litigation#Genericide_of_%22google%22" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Google_litigation#Genericide_o...</a><p>[3]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.adobe.com&#x2F;legal&#x2F;permissions&#x2F;trademarks.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.adobe.com&#x2F;legal&#x2F;permissions&#x2F;trademarks.html</a>

« Velcro » is just roughly short for “hook (and) loop” in French (Velour et crochet — velvet and hook). So why not use the abbreviation? Trademarking it is like trademarking any common word, like Windows.<p>Actually I do have some sympathy; from working at Xerox I somehow was convinced to say “photocopy” (not that anyone uses either expression any more). And I always say “web search” because I don’t want to endorse or encourage the use of google.

(2017), according to <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;eu.usatoday.com&#x2F;story&#x2F;money&#x2F;2017&#x2F;09&#x2F;26&#x2F;velcros-video-implores-consumers-say-hook-and-loop&#x2F;705667001&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;eu.usatoday.com&#x2F;story&#x2F;money&#x2F;2017&#x2F;09&#x2F;26&#x2F;velcros-video...</a><p>They&#x27;re trying to avoid genericide. I think if they <i>didn&#x27;t</i> do this, they could actually <i>lose the trademark</i>.

Funnily enough, even though vel-cro is a combination of two words in French (velour crochet), most people in France call it just &quot;scratch&quot; (as per the sound it makes).

Reminds me of the dark ages, when Xerox was so dominant in the copier market that people used their brand as a noun and a verb. They were threatened with loss of their trademark, because it had become so generic. So they had a massive publicity campaign, asking people to say &quot;copy&quot; instead of &quot;xerox&quot;.<p>Is this a uniquely US thing? In the UK, people always say &quot;hoover&quot; instead of &quot;vacuum&quot;.

If you&#x27;ve never seen the video ad that went along with this campaign, it&#x27;s hilarious and worth watching, as is the follow up. I love the good humor about the whole thing. And it has made their campaign stick in ways that other similar campaigns have not.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;rRi8LptvFZY?si=nfzpn2DDngeyyETN" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;rRi8LptvFZY?si=nfzpn2DDngeyyETN</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;ZLWMQLMiTPk?si=28csS65KpQyoFrEn" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;ZLWMQLMiTPk?si=28csS65KpQyoFrEn</a>

Cute attempt, but Velcro&#x2F;velcro has already been genericised for decades at this point. Nobody&#x27;s going to move (back?) to &quot;hook-and-loop,&quot; especially when the alternative rolls off the tongue a lot better.

Pro-tip: I work very hard to help make generic the trademarks of corporations I think are evil (and vice-versa for ones I like).<p>It&#x27;s a free, cheap, and easy way to fight back.<p>To the great annoyance of many, I even usually google for things with DuckDuckGo. :)

Going to have to xerox this for my wall.

&gt; you diminish the importance of our brand and our lawyers lose their <i>insert fastening sound.</i><p>I understand why they’re doing it and maybe in 2017 general mood was a bit different but right now there are people who would absolutely love to diminish the importance of a brand or two first thing in the morning even before their coffee. And they’re giving them ideas for free.

&gt;Incorrect: I just bought some velcro shoes!<p>&gt;Correct: I just bought some self-fastening shoes!<p>I will never say that

Imagine launching a campaign aimed at reducing brand dominance.<p>My n=1 experience is that when shopping for &quot;hook and loop&quot; strips online, I make sure that they are actual Velcro.<p>Beyond useless, I think that the attempt is misguided.

So, you can either try to change what&#x27;s in the vocabulary of 300 million people for generations. Or change your brand name. They chose the first. Interesting.

Oh goodness, will this hasten the velcropolipse?<p>I fear that whilst velcroing items I will forget the need to not mention velcro as in to velcro or the thing velcro itself and the words the VELCRO™ lawyers said about not saying velcro will slip from my mind like poorly velcroed shoes.<p>Does anyone else think their use of velcro in casual conversation will be affected? Has anyone tried to use velcro and suffered any fall out? I might have to Google it.

And that explains why lawyers will never get love or sympathy from most living creatures. They&#x27;ll always have to sue for getting any kind of consideration. In my ideal world, they don&#x27;t exist at all, or they&#x27;re called mediators.<p>But let&#x27;s be clear: this is an ad. And ad folks are the worst, worst than lawyer, just a notch above dirt. And btw, not buying velcro products anymore.

In many other languages it is called &quot;burdock tape&quot; after the plant whose burrs was the inspiration behind the invention of velcro.

I&#x27;m not a lawyer, and I&#x27;m confused.<p>Do they lose their trademark if it gets used generically, or if they don&#x27;t try to prevent that? Because common sense would imply the former, but then this video would just be a big admission that they already lost, no?<p>&quot;Everywhere you go, you see this scratchy, hairy fastener and you say &#x27;Hey, that&#x27;s velcro!&#x27;&quot;

I can&#x27;t tell if this is good marketing disguised as a joke or if it&#x27;s just mega-out-of-touch cringe.

In Spanish it&#x27;s officially &quot;velcro&quot; from the French abbreviation <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;dle.rae.es&#x2F;velcro" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;dle.rae.es&#x2F;velcro</a> and no alternative. About as generic as you get.<p>Speaking of velcro shoes, I inherited some velcro fastening trainers because my eldest kid felt he&#x27;d grown out of using them (he has the same size foot as me). I feel very self conscious wearing them in public because <i>nobody</i> wears velcro trainers. In the 6 months I&#x27;ve had them, I&#x27;ve been keeping an eye out in a busy European city, and I&#x27;ve seen just 1 person and that was a sort of work uniform shoe some guy had. Nobody has &quot;fashion&quot; velcro shoes. They do look kinda goofy I suppose.

Compare with &quot;Prosecco&quot; recently starting an advertising campaign on the London Underground[0] telling people to stop calling whatever generic, non-region protected sparkling wine they&#x27;re drinking &quot;Prosecco&quot; because Prosecco is DOC protected.<p>Seems to me (despite the almost certainly valid legal points in the comments here) that the Velcro one is a bit tongue-in-cheek whereas I was slightly taken aback at how direct and earnest the Prosecco one seemed.<p>Net result will be the same though, I suspect.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;euroweeklynews.com&#x2F;2023&#x2F;12&#x2F;26&#x2F;italy-warns-britons-to-stop-calling-sparkling-wine-prosecco&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;euroweeklynews.com&#x2F;2023&#x2F;12&#x2F;26&#x2F;italy-warns-britons-to...</a>

It is an interesting page because<p>* on the face of it, they are reminding people to not use their brand in a generic sense<p>* they also loaded it up with cutesy language. Maybe it is the most “meme-able” stuff legal would approve. “Don’t talk about me” is the best way to get talked about.

&gt; Us lawyers have to protect our people. Using the VELCRO® trademark properly allows us to protect the integrity of the VELCRO® Brand and our trademark rights, and protect consumers from purchasing products incorrectly identified as VELCRO® Brand products. It’s, you know, the right thing to do.<p>One of my least favourite thing is when massive corporations use this kind of cutesy language. To me, it brings to mind the wolf from Little Red Riding hood wearing her grandmother&#x27;s clothes.<p>If the sentence was honest, it&#x27;d be something more like:<p>&gt; Us lawyers are paid money to facilitate the VELCRO megacorp to make even more money. If you threaten the megacorp by misusing our trademark, we will sue you into the ground, no matter who you are, and regardless of whether it&#x27;s the &quot;right thing&quot; or not.

For those who haven&#x27;t seen it before: If both surfaces you are fastening together are (relatively) rigid, then mushroom-head fasteners (e.g. 3M Dual Lock) have many advantages over hook-and-loop fasteners.

they should&#x27;ve had a longer name if they didn&#x27;t want to become a noun

That ship has (mostly) sailed, but companies have lost their brand rights for failing to police uses. Did you know Aspirin was once a brand name for the acetylsalicylic acid product Bayer invented?

Similarly, many people who own vacuum cleaners which aren’t Hoover-branded still own hoovers and many chocolate and creme sandwich cookies which aren’t Oreo-branded are still oreos. I think some people in the US will refer to drinks which I call “soda” as “coke”. Like a “Sprite-coke” if you don’t want a cola.<p>This must be a page for VELCRO®’s lawyers to point to during relevant lawsuits because the argument otherwise seems like a lost cause.

Transformers do not transform but convert in Hasbro’s marketing and licensed materials, and strictly speaking they’re not even supposed to be Transformers but Transformers robots (which grammatically is wrong, but alas). Except, for whatever valid reason, inside the fiction, where Transformers becomes a perfectly valid noun they refer themselves with and they do transform, not convert, all day long. I don’t get it.

Probably different with Velcro, but in the case of Google wouldn&#x27;t the term &quot;google it&quot; which just really means &quot;search it on the internet&quot; be extremely helpful? Helpful in ways very different from velcro or gilette (in many countries generic term for &#x27;razor&#x27;)

I’m assuming this is meant to be a joke.

There&#x27;s a straussian dynamic at work here where the company wants to informally encourage generic use of their brand, but must also formally defend proper use of their brand for legal reasons. Courts need to see you at least appear to defend yourself.

Great. Hope this is real. I&#x27;d be impressed if the real lawyers did this.<p>There was a follow up video, also good <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=ZLWMQLMiTPk" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=ZLWMQLMiTPk</a>

In French c&#x27;est &quot;le scratch&quot;.<p>Better than hook and loop!<p>PS: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;ZLWMQLMiTPk?feature=shared&amp;t=111" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;ZLWMQLMiTPk?feature=shared&amp;t=111</a>

In Serbia we never say Velcro but thistle stripe (burdock stripe). Interestingly enough, we say gilette for razor and digitron for calculator.

Trademarks that have conflict with common use words should have their vowels randomized: crovel, eppla, zonama, tema, etc.

Americans tend to use brand names instead of the words for things.. Xerox, Velcro etc...<p>We call it klittenband.. tangle band. Or tangle strip

Imagine if OpenAI had named ChatGPT something that rolled off the tongue like Velcro. Missed opportunity.

Ok, I’ll just find a hippier word to use to describe “hook and loop” so Velcro will lose their relevance.

ah let me get into my jeep to get some xeroxes of my opinion and drive to give them some kleenexes

No problem in France - the generic term for Velcro here is &#x27;scratch&#x27;.

Velcro that. I intend to velcro velcro for the velcroing future.

I&#x27;m going to say it more now.

Velcro!

(2017)

This is humor, right?

This is literally a psyop. This is free marketing. Don’t fall for it.

“Still confused?” LOL, yes!

v e l c r o (r)