Why Does Rollerblade Care?
In order to protect their trademark, Rollerblade is required by the U.S. Patent Office to make a significant effort to find instances of misuse of the terms “Rollerblade” and “Rollerblading”, and follow up by sending a letter to the offenders. If it can ever be shown that Rollerblade permitted generic use of their trademarked name, they could lose their claim to that trademark. Many trademarks have been inadvertently forfeited by their owners because the owners allowed them to slip in common usage. Some well-known examples of trademarks that have been lost are windsurfer, aspirin, escalator, cellophane and yo-yo. Xerox is another company with good reason to be concerned about their trademark lapsing into common usage. If you get caught using the word Xerox as a generic verb, you will received a “cease and desist” letter from Xerox every time. Two Test Cases Rollerblade has established firm control over the name “Rollerblade” but it has not been quite as easy to prevent the term “Roller
