by Tdarcos » Sat Sep 17, 2011 5:19 pm
Flack wrote:Tdarcos wrote:Flack wrote:Also, according to grammar Nazis, the word "realtor" should always be capitalized -- as in, Realtor is a proper noun. Now that's some elitist bullshit right there.
The real reason is that "Realtor" is a registered trademark of the National Association of Realtors, and is issued to real estate agents who pay the fee to use it.
Just like "Big Mac" or "Whopper" are supposed to be capitalized because they're registered trademarks.
Yeah, I Googlied it too, but I still don't agree with it. If people want to use Realtor (capitalized) to mean "someone who is a licensed member of the NAR," then that's fine. But "realtor," lowercase, should (I think) be used when referring, in general, to one who sells houses.
Sounds like someone running a restaurant who thinks "Big Mac" should be capitalized to indicate a licensed franchisee of McDonalds but "big mac" should be allowed for someone selling the identical sandwich at a non-McDonalds restaurant.
Or let's let sellers of Coca-Cola products use "Coke" and those selling Pepsi to use "coke".
Let's let Cadillac dealers sell Cadillac cars, but sellers of Hyundai cars can call theirs a cadillac. Mercedes Benz at a licensed dealer, mercedes benz for any other used (or new) car lot selling anything whether or not it came from Daimler.
Flack wrote:I guess we always have "real estate agent," but in today's world of Twitter, SpongeBob and cell phones, I'm afraid attention spans are so short that by using three words instead of one, people will get distracted and lose interest. Who has time these days to use three words, where one will do?
So create some new word and spend several million dollars advertising it, then you can decide if you want to throw that away and let anyone use it, or only the people who pay you. You could have said the same thing about a fast-paced world when TV came out and overshadowed radio and newspapers.
Flack wrote:I realize it's not uncommon for companies to get their panties in a wad when we, the unintelligent general public, misuse trademarked words. Coca-Cola hates it when people use the word "cokes" to represent "a selection of carbonated sodas." If you really want to attract the ire of grammar Nazis, try pluralizing the word Lego! Lego has gone so far as to address it on their website. Lego is the brand; individual Lego pieces are called bricks, so the correct plural term is "Lego bricks," not "Legos." And actually, that's not even right; the correct term is LEGO bricks. So if you ever use the terms "lego," "Lego," or "Legos" on their forums, you will be corrected. It's "LEGO" and "LEGO bricks." Sheesh.
Trademark rules are not the same as copyrights and patents. You can ignore any infringement of your copyright or patent and it provides no defense to a third party that you didn't enforce it on someone else, or that you didn't go after them until they were much larger. But failing to vigorously enforce a trademark can result in a court deciding you didn't police the mark adequately and thus it is a generic term because you allowed it.
Flack wrote:Here's a list of genericizied trademarks from Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ge ... trademarks
God, I'm going to start correcting people who type "zipper" and tell them to capitalize it. Or "bubble wrap." Who capitalizes bubble wrap? Or "dumpster." Sorry, it's "Dumpster."
No, once a mark becomes generic it is no longer capitalized except as the first word of a sentence. We don't write Escalator, Cellophane, or Aspirin because the marks have lost trademark status, they're just ordinary nouns and not trademarks. The exception is that in the U.K. and some other countries, Bayer is still the owner of the trademarked Aspirin brand of acetylsalicylic acid. In those countries it would still be capitalized as a proper noun.
[quote="Flack"][quote="Tdarcos"][quote="Flack"]Also, according to grammar Nazis, the word "realtor" should always be capitalized -- as in, Realtor is a proper noun. Now that's some elitist bullshit right there.[/quote]
The real reason is that "Realtor" is a registered trademark of the National Association of Realtors, and is issued to real estate agents who pay the fee to use it.
Just like "Big Mac" or "Whopper" are supposed to be capitalized because they're registered trademarks.[/quote]
Yeah, I Googlied it too, but I still don't agree with it. If people want to use Realtor (capitalized) to mean "someone who is a licensed member of the NAR," then that's fine. But "realtor," lowercase, should (I think) be used when referring, in general, to one who sells houses.[/quote]
Sounds like someone running a restaurant who thinks "Big Mac" should be capitalized to indicate a licensed franchisee of McDonalds but "big mac" should be allowed for someone selling the identical sandwich at a non-McDonalds restaurant.
Or let's let sellers of Coca-Cola products use "Coke" and those selling Pepsi to use "coke".
Let's let Cadillac dealers sell Cadillac cars, but sellers of Hyundai cars can call theirs a cadillac. Mercedes Benz at a licensed dealer, mercedes benz for any other used (or new) car lot selling anything whether or not it came from Daimler.
[quote="Flack"]I guess we always have "real estate agent," but in today's world of Twitter, SpongeBob and cell phones, I'm afraid attention spans are so short that by using three words instead of one, people will get distracted and lose interest. Who has time these days to use three words, where one will do?[/quote]
So create some new word and spend several million dollars advertising it, then you can decide if you want to throw that away and let anyone use it, or only the people who pay you. You could have said the same thing about a fast-paced world when TV came out and overshadowed radio and newspapers.
[quote="Flack"]I realize it's not uncommon for companies to get their panties in a wad when we, the unintelligent general public, misuse trademarked words. Coca-Cola hates it when people use the word "cokes" to represent "a selection of carbonated sodas." If you really want to attract the ire of grammar Nazis, try pluralizing the word Lego! Lego has gone so far as to address it on their website. Lego is the brand; individual Lego pieces are called bricks, so the correct plural term is "Lego bricks," not "Legos." And actually, that's not even right; the correct term is LEGO bricks. So if you ever use the terms "lego," "Lego," or "Legos" on their forums, you will be corrected. It's "LEGO" and "LEGO bricks." Sheesh.[/quote]
Trademark rules are not the same as copyrights and patents. You can ignore any infringement of your copyright or patent and it provides no defense to a third party that you didn't enforce it on someone else, or that you didn't go after them until they were much larger. But failing to vigorously enforce a trademark can result in a court deciding you didn't police the mark adequately and thus it is a generic term because you allowed it.
[quote="Flack"]Here's a list of genericizied trademarks from Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_genericized_trademarks
God, I'm going to start correcting people who type "zipper" and tell them to capitalize it. Or "bubble wrap." Who capitalizes bubble wrap? Or "dumpster." Sorry, it's "Dumpster."[/quote]
No, once a mark becomes generic it is no longer capitalized except as the first word of a sentence. We don't write Escalator, Cellophane, or Aspirin because the marks have lost trademark status, they're just ordinary nouns and not trademarks. The exception is that in the U.K. and some other countries, Bayer is still the owner of the trademarked Aspirin brand of acetylsalicylic acid. In those countries it would still be capitalized as a proper noun.