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Discussion on: Did you know that Oracle owns the trademark to Javascript?

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Eugene Cheah • Edited

There would be arguable grounds that the trademark term has been "Genericide". However until it is proven in court, its not official.

Its a situation, where a trademark has gain such popularity and dominance over a term, that its trademark will no longer apply. Allowing even their competitors to use the same term, like almost every other english term in the dictionary.

Some well known example would be

  • Dumpster
  • Thermos
  • Hovercraft
  • Dry Ice
  • Heroine

These were actual trade mark terms that gotten so popular, they have lost their trademarks.

This is actually part of the reason why you would see "Google" putting their name on a 101 products, because some would argue "Google" has come to mean "Online Search" and hence no longer a trademark. While on the other hand, Google would argue it doesnt just mean search, but a 101 other different things and hence still a trademark. (Legals 🤷)

This is a very complicated legal topic, and Wiki would have a much more elaborate explanation : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_trad...

So if im guessing, I would bet Oracle wouldn't sue over such a term, as it would just open a can of worms of it potentially being generalized.

Disclaimer : I am not a lawyer