Why is Google the Textbook Example of What Not to Do with Your Trademark? | Trademark Factory® FAQ

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Why is Google the Textbook Example of What Not to Do with Your Trademark?

Google has been committing 3 deadly sins that you will see in every textbook for trademarking of what trademark owners should not do with their trademarks.

These 3 things are: first of all, they keep changing their logos all the time, so their logo is continuously evolving. If you go to the website, they will have variations of their logo pretty much every day. That’s a big no-no because usually when you have a logo, you want to make sure it stays the same so that you can continue building goodwill around that

The second big sin is that they allow people to use “google” as a verb. Let me google that, let me google this. What that means is that it’s the shortest way to get your brand to stop being recognized as the trademark, and become generic. So this way we had aspirin or escalator you linoleum—all these words were once somebody’s trademarks until they allowed people to use them as nouns. And that is something that trademark owners should not do.

And the third thing is that Google does allow other people to use their brand in some of their marketing all the time. So This for Google, That for Google, LetMeGoogleThisForYou web-site, and many, many examples… And typically, trademark owners should police the use of their trademarks by others to make sure that there is no dilution and there is no infringement.

So Google has not been doing any none of those three things and the question is why?

And the answer to that is very simple, I’ve been explaining this for a long time that intellectual property laws are designed to help the little guy. Because the big guys have all the money in the world to spend on their advertising agencies and their lawyers. So they can have a successful brand and a successful business without doing all the things that little guys should be doing with their trademarks.

So trademarks and other intellectual property is really to help that little guy compete with the big guys because little guys don’t have a lot of money that they can send to advertising agencies and to their lawyers, so what a registered trademark does, it helps you to protect the brand.

So don’t use Google as an example of how you’re treating your brand.

If you have a logo, keep using the same logo over and over again so you can have proof of continued use of the same brand and of goodwill in that particular logo. Don’t let people use your name as a verb. Only allow them to use your name, your brand name, as YOUR brand name, not just a general noun, not as a generic noun. And lastly, if you see somebody who is using your brand without your permission, make sure that you tell them that you are not happy with this or at the very least, have them sign some limitation as to how they will be permitted to use that brand in the future.
But don’t rely on Google as an example of what you should be doing. Google is a great company – you’re not there yet.

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