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Google a photoshopped hoover 


What else could you call a photocopier[각주:1]? If you answer "a Xerox machine", you are one of the many people for whom the brand name and the generic item are one and the same. Like many brands that have gone generic[각주:2], xerox is often lower-case[각주:3] and used as a verb. There are many more of these than people realize: aspirin was once Aspirin, a trademark of Bayer, which was forced to give it up as part of Germany's reparations[각주:4] after the first world war.


Most "universalized[각주:5]" brand names are really only regional[각주:6]. Visitors to the American South are amused to[각주:7] find that its most famous brand is used generically[각주:8]: "You want a coke? We have Mountain Dew, Sprite..." And a vacuum is universally a hoover in Britain: look for[각주:9] "hoover" via a search engine (quick, name one) in Britain and you will be offered hoovers by Dyson, Russell Hobbs and others besides the eponymous[각주:10] company (which, though Americans have not universalized its brand, was founded in Ohio).


Brands go generic all around the world. What Americans call a Kleenex, Germans call a Tempo, and what they call a Band-Aid is a Hansaplast in Greece and Turkey. In Mexico or Brazil, those who want Scotch tape (as Americans call clear plastic tape) or Sellotape (as it's known in Britain) need to know to ask for Durex. But of course Durex is better known in other countries for making what Italians call a Goldone - a condom.


You would think that having your brand reach universal status would be an occasion for champagne[각주:11] in the boardroom[각주:12], a sign of total market domination[각주:13]. You would be wrong. What linguists sometimes call "genericisation[각주:14]" of brand names has a grimmer name among marketing types: "genericide[각주:15]". Companies that see their trademarks go generic may be unable to renew[각주:16] them. So Google does not want you to use the phrase "to google a hoover" - unless you specifically mean that you used Google's search engine, and not, say Bing. When the Swedish Academy added ogooglebar to its list of new words, meaning "unable to be found with a search engine", Google hassled the company to[각주:17] change the definition to mean "unable to be found with the Google search engine", and to include a notice that Google was a registered trademark[각주:18]. The Academy dropped the word from its list instead. That, of course, made ogooglebar a sensation. Foreign coverage of the flap[각주:19] almost uniformly[각주:20] favored[각주:21] the Swedes. 


Other trademark-holders[각주:22] are touchier than[각주:23] Google. Adobe, maker of Photoshop, publishes an elaborate list of[각주:24] thou-shalt[각주:25] and thou-shalt-nots, even dictating the grammatical uses of[각주:26] its famous trademark. First on that list is "Trademarks are not verbs". The company wants you to say not "The image was photoshopped" but "The image was enhanced using Adobe Photoshop software." Adobe's injunctions[각주:27] go on to get confused. "Trademarks must never be used in possessive form[각주:28]," the list continues, so you should not write "Photoshop's new features are impressive." This is presumably[각주:29] because Adobe believes that Trademarks are not nouns," including Photoshop. But this is nonsense: "Photoshop" is used as a noun endlessly on Adobe's own website. 


Legally[각주:30], Adobe's grammatical diktats[각주:31] are not worth a photoshopped image of its CEO riding a unicorn. They are not part of any contract, nor are they covered by trademark law. That is about commerce[각주:32], not intellectual, public or casual speech[각주:33]. It can stop you from selling image-editing software called Photoshoppe, but not from calling an edited image "photoshopped", or even a "shoop", as some internet denizens[각주:34] jokingly[각주:35] do.


But company lawyers have a tendency to[각주:36] fight harder than they need to. Siva Vaidhyanathan of the University of Virginia writes in "Intellectual Property[각주:37]: A Very Short Introduction" of a man in 1990 who filed for[각주:38] a trademark on his red, white and blue assortment of[각주:39] "Stealth Condoms", with the tag-phrase "They'll never see you coming." Northrop, the maker of the B-2 "stealth bomber", sued to stop him, claiming that the man had purloined[각주:40] and even harmed the reputation of[각주:41] their trademark. He went bust[각주:42]


Companies have deep pockets[각주:43] and can outlast opponents[각주:44] in a lawsuit[각주:45], right or wrong. Adobe's rules for "Photoshop" have no force; the instructions actually say "you should", not "you must", but the page is formatted to[각주:46] look intimidatingly[각주:47] legal. Even without the force of law, Mr Vaidhyanathan says, it has the same effect: "If it chills speech[각주:48], it chills speech."


  1. photocopier ; [명사] (또한 copier 특히 美) 복사기 [본문으로]
  2. go generic ; 대중화 되다 [본문으로]
  3. lower-case ; [형용사] 소문자의 [본문으로]
  4. reparations ; 배상금, 배상물 [본문으로]
  5. universalize ; [타동사] 일반화하다, 보편화하다 [본문으로]
  6. regional ; [형용사] (주로 명사 앞에 씀) 지방[지역]의 [본문으로]
  7. amuse ; 1. (사람을) 즐겁게[미소 짓게/재미있게] 하다 [본문으로]
  8. generically ; 2. 일반적으로; 총칭적으로 [본문으로]
  9. look for ; [동사] 찾다, 구하다; 기대하다. ;; 동의어 ; seek, pursue; anticipate. [본문으로]
  10. eponymous ; [형용사] (명사 앞에만 씀) (작품 속 인물이) 작품명과 동일한 이름의 ;; US [ɪ|pɑ:nɪməs] UK [ɪ|pɒnɪməs] [본문으로]
  11. an occasion for ; …을 위한 기회, …할 이유 ;; an occasion for champagne 은 흐름상 "축하할 만한" 정도의 의미 [본문으로]
  12. boardroom ; [명사] 중역 회의실, 이사회실 [본문으로]
  13. market dominance ; 시장 점유, 시장 지배력 [본문으로]
  14. genericization ; 1. The process of becoming generic. 2. (law) With respect to a trademark, the act or process of becoming so widely identified as a reference for a type of product as to cease representing a particular brand or manufacturer of that type of product. [본문으로]
  15. genericide ; [명사] (신조어) 특정 브랜드명이 제품이 속한 전체 카테고리에 해당하는 일반명이 되는 과정 [본문으로]
  16. renew ; 4. (낡거나 훼손된 것을) 새로 교체하다 [본문으로]
  17. hassle ; [타동사][VN] (비격식) 재촉하다, 들볶다 [본문으로]
  18. registered ; 3. 공인된, 정부 허가를 받은 [본문으로]
  19. flap ; 4. PUBLIC DISAGREEMENT | [sing.] (美) (공인의 말・행동으로 인한) 논란[소란] [본문으로]
  20. uniformly ; [부사] 한결같이, 균일[균등]하게 [본문으로]
  21. favor ; 2. …에 편들다; 장려하다; 조력하다, 돕다, 지지하다 [본문으로]
  22. holder ; [흔히 합성어에서] 1. …소유자[소지자/보유자] ;; 참고 ; record holder, title-holder [본문으로]
  23. touchy ; (touch・ier , touchi・est) 1. [대개 명사 앞에는 안 씀] ~ (about sth) (사람이) 화를 잘 내는, 과민한 [본문으로]
  24. elaborate ; [형용사] (주로 명사 앞에 씀) 정교한; 정성[공]을 들인 [본문으로]
  25. thou-shalt ; old use a phrase meaning ‘you shall’, used when talking to one person [본문으로]
  26. dictate ; 2. ~ (sth) (to sb) (특히 듣는 사람이 기분 나쁘게) 지시[명령]하다 [본문으로]
  27. injunction ; 2. (격식) (권한을 지닌 사람의) 경고[명령] [본문으로]
  28. possessive form ; 소유격 형태 [본문으로]
  29. presumably ; [부사] 아마, 짐작건대 [본문으로]
  30. legally ; [부사] 법률적[합법적]으로, 법률상 [본문으로]
  31. diktat ; [C , U] (못마땅함) (정부의) 강권 US [dɪk|tӕt] UK [|dɪktӕt] [본문으로]
  32. commerce ; [U] 무역; 상업 ;; 참고 ; Chamber of Commerce [본문으로]
  33. casual speech ; 일상 말투, 반말 [본문으로]
  34. denizen ; [명사] (격식 또는 유머) (특정 지역에서 사는[흔히 발견되는]) 사람[생물] ;; US.UK [|denɪzn] [본문으로]
  35. jokingly ; [부사] 농담 삼아, 장난으로 [본문으로]
  36. have a tendency to ; …의 경향이 있다 [본문으로]
  37. intellectual property ; [U] (법률) 지적 재산 [본문으로]
  38. file for ; 1. …을 신청[제기]하다 [본문으로]
  39. assortment ; [명사] (주로 단수로) (같은 종류의 여러 가지) 모음, 종합 ;; US [ə|sɔ:rtmənt] UK [ə|sɔ:tmənt] [본문으로]
  40. purloin ; [타동사][VN] ~ sth (from sb/sth) (격식 또는 유머) 훔치다 ;; US [pɜ:r|lɔɪn;|pɜ:rlɔɪn] UK [pɜ:|lɔɪn;|pɜ:lɔɪn] [본문으로]
  41. harm one's reputation ; 평판, 명예를 훼손하다 [본문으로]
  42. go bust ; 파산하다 [본문으로]
  43. deep pockets ; 충분한 자력, 강력한 자금원 [본문으로]
  44. outlast ; [타동사][VN] …보다 더 오래 가다[계속하다] [본문으로]
  45. lawsuit ; [명사] (또한 suit) 소송, 고소 [본문으로]
  46. format ; Verb(-tt-) 1. 포맷[서식]을 만들다 2. (전문 용어) (페이지나 화면의) 체재를 갖추다 [본문으로]
  47. intimidatingly ; 위협적으로 [본문으로]
  48. chill ; 3. [타동사][VN] (문예체) 오싹하게 만들다 [본문으로]
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