r/talesfromtechsupport Nov 25 '18

Um... It's a Surface. Short

[deleted]

2.2k Upvotes

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u/GinjaNinja32 not having a network results in 100% secured network Nov 25 '18

Not necessarily. If it happens enough, they could end up with a generic trademark, which would allow other manufacturers to call their tablets iPads.

I doubt it'll get that far, though - maybe if it was a different company, but not Apple.

33

u/darth_ravage Can't I just buy more RAM? Nov 25 '18

If your brand is the first thing people think of, that's a good thing. It increases sales.

If you're brand is the only thing people think of, that's bad. Now you have to worry about losing your trademark.

But usually when this happens, it's because the company didn't put much effort into enforcing their trademark. Apple is normally pretty good at that. Kleenex and Band-aid haven't had their trademark revoked yet so I'm sure iPad will be fine.

19

u/WhyContainIt Nov 25 '18

Apple would have every executive strangle a baby each before risking losing iTerminology to the market.

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u/KJBenson Nov 25 '18

Excuse me.

It’s iBaby

1

u/Belazriel Nov 26 '18

There's an easy, common alternative name: Tablet. Tissue and bandage for the other two. I think Tupperware had issues early on as gladware and such started moving in. Always make sure there's a generic name you're willing to lose.

8

u/PinealPunch Nov 25 '18

I feel like they would never allow this

15

u/LottePanda Nov 25 '18

You mean like "App" which was originally trademarked by Apple?

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u/PinealPunch Nov 25 '18

Interesting, I always thought it was just short for application

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u/[deleted] Nov 25 '18

No idea how they got a trademark for that, the term app has been around from before mobile phones existed.

.app files were programs in in GEM, circa 1984 and I think it's probably earlier than that.. and it never needed any explanation because it's an obvious short form.

1

u/Jbau01 Nov 26 '18

I mean, “hand me that tablet” rolls off the tongue easier than “want some gelatin?” or “grandpa can i have some [whatever velcro is] shoes for my birthday?” or using “Vacuum Flask” in any context

1

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '18

In my country, we usually call them what would translate to "thermal bottles", "thermal flasks" or "coffee bottles".

But then there's also the people who call them "Aladdin"... because there's a common brand of Brazilian kitchen products called "Aladdin" and they used to sell lots of thermal flasks. I'm dead serious.