Protecting trademarks from language change
Proper use of the Photoshop trademark (via Alex Utter)
INCORRECT: The image was photoshopped.
CORRECT: The image was enhanced using Adobe® Photoshop® software.INCORRECT: A photoshopper sees his hobby as an art form.
CORRECT: Those who use Adobe® Photoshop® software to manipulate images as a hobby see their work as an art form.
There seems to be a continuum of how much meaning a trademark has lost in colloquial speech:
- Used only as an adjective or noun to refer to the correct product.
- "You should eat something healthier than Goldfish crackers and Oreos."
- Used in a non-traditional manner, but only when referring to the correct product.
- "I googled her".
- Used when it a competitor's product might be used instead.
- "It doesn't exist, it's photoshopped... Sorry."
- "Letters you send should be xeroxed after you sign them"
- "You should have some kleenex handy before loading this site."
- Used even when you know a competitor's product will be used.
- "Can you go downstairs and xerox this for me?"
- Used in the same sentence as a competitor's trademark.
- "my rollerblades: k2 backyard bobs"
- "I used the HP multifunction printer to xerox it."
- Used as a noun modified by a competitor's trademark. (At this point, you're screwed.)
Trademarks incorrectly used as verbs and trademarks incorrectly used as generic nouns can both lose their meaning over time. US trademark law is less friendly to trademarks that get used as verbs, but I don't know whether trademarks used as verbs naturally lose their meaning faster.
If Adobe isn't worried about its Photoshop trademark becoming more and more generic, it should continue doing the legal minimum to discourage its use as a verb, and the world will continue to make fun of Adobe. (After all, every "That image must have been photoshopped!" is free advertising.) But if Abode is worried about its trademark losing its meaning, it should start by rewriting its trademark-use guidelines to have better motivation and less awkward suggestions. For example:
The use of "photoshop" as a verb worries us because history has shown that verbed trademarks often lose their meaning over time. For example, "to xerox" was once fun shorthand for "to photocopy using a Xerox photocopier", but it has taken on a life of its own as a colloquial verb meaning simply "to photocopy", costing Xerox Corporation $... to protect its trademark and putting the company at risk of losing trademark protection.
When writing articles, always use a generic verb, such as "enhanced", "manipulated", "edited", or "altered", adding "using Adobe Photoshop" if appropriate. In informal speech, use the verb "to photoshop" only to mean "to alter using Adobe Photoshop", and consider saying "altered" or "shopped" rather than "photoshopped" when a competing product might have been used.
Our trademark lawyers think you should say "Adobe Photoshop software" rather than "Adobe Photoshop", but in the real world, most trademarks are nouns in addition to adjectives, so don't listen to them. But most trademarks are not used as verbs, and trademarks that are used as verbs are at high risk for losing their meaning.
(Disclaimer: I am neither an IP lawyer nor a linguist, so I don't know what I'm talking about.)
- Media Literacy Review: Trademark Battles
- Techwr-l: Trademarks as adjectives vs trademarks as nouns
- Xerox's ad in Writer's Digest (also on Techwr-l)
- Slashdot: Verbing Weirds Google
- Berkeley Intellectual Property Weblog: Google is Sending C&D Letters About Saying "To Google"
Update on applications
Graduate schools
I applied to Ph.D. programs in computer science to study computational complexity. In order of US News ranking:
U Washington : REJECTED Princeton : REJECTED UC Los Angeles : ACCEPTED UC San Diego : ACCEPTED UC Irvine : In Progress Boston U : In Progress U Oregon : ACCEPTED
Admissions: 3/7
Full-time jobs
Expedia/testing : March interview IBM : In progress
Summer jobs
Google/HCI internship : In Progress
Honest prof
The Abstract Algebra homework is due next Friday evening. Jamie wouldn't say exactly when he would pick it up, but he did give us a probability distribution:
Nader to run for president
[16:48] * MightyMu sabotages Ralph Nader's seatbelt
Mozilla shirts
- Red Dino in square (black)
- Hack; Dino in Star; Dino
- Dino (official)
- Hack (same as a sticker)
- Mozilla Cafe
- Mozillazine
- Blake breaks the tree, you break his mug
- Futured (my idea; based on bugzilla boilerplate; I have one)
- Banner
- Banner on shirts; lizard eating MSN butterflies on mugs
- I kicked blake from #mozilla
- Tinderbox after a Hyatt landing
- Viva la révolution (mug)
Older shirts:
Anime Firefox logo
Anime version of the Firefox logo (via noririty).
Phonogenic
My favorite a cappella group, The Claremont Shades, released Phonogenic today. Track list with MP3 samples of 4 songs:
- Beautiful Day (u2 / bono)
- Sexual Healing (marvin gaye / brown)
- Walking on Broken Glass (annie lennox)
- Push It (garbage)
- The Way It Is (bruce hornsby)
- Techno Fusion (paul oakenfold, alice deejay, sonique)
- When There's Nothing (jake oken-berg (shades member))
- The Boy Is Mine (monica / brandy)
- What's Love Get to Do With It (tina turner / britten / lyle)
- Time After Time (cyndi lauper)
- Freedom 90 (george michael)
Pomona College Magazine gives the history of my favorite track, Techno Fusion:
"We're taking three different techno songs and basically doing what a DJ would do at a club, which is take them and mix them all together." [Jake Oken-Berg]
"Techno Fusion" was arranged by the Shades' newest member, Pomona College freshman Rob Breahrs. The piece makes liberal use of vocal percussion and combines Paul Oakenfold's "Ascension," Alice Deejay's "Better Off Alone" and Sonique's "It feels so good."
"I realized there are a lot of parts in the background we could write, and a lot of things going on in the middle parts that make it more interesting," Breahrs said. "Then, I also realized that one song would be too boring: techno's kind of repetitive, so I decided to take three different songs that most people know and then put them all in the same key and then kind of go back and forth between them during a medley."
I am disappointed that Phonogenic doesn't include the great versions of Harder to Breathe (Maroon 5) and Don't Speak (No Doubt) that I've heard at recent Shades concerts. I wonder if those songs will be on the next Shades CD.
Full MP3s of songs from old Claremont Shades CDs:
- I Can See Clearly Now (Johnny Nash) from Prescription Only
- Isobel (Dido) from Color
Photos from the CD release party/concert: friends who were there, the Shades singing.
E-mail me if you want to know when I figure out how you can order the CD.
RLP #3
- Respect Bootleggers via jcurious
- Your favorite band sucks via simon
- Terry Tate, Office Linebacker: Sensitivity Training
- Sample abstract for the 8th International Global Atmospheric Conference via schmack
- Caution: This sign has sharp edges via cait
- Error in Microsoft Frontpage ad
- How Harvey Mudd stole Caltech's cannon via schmack
- Firesomething extension. Mozilla Poweroyster!
- James Gosling: Moore's Law in two photos
- Hidden bird, a demonstration of visual grouping by motion
MozillaZine fixes information leak
Three hours before Firefox 0.8 was released, I found a security hole in Mozillazine: you could see the titles of unpublished articles (e.g. http://mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=4283) in the titlebar. Using this hole, I accidentally discovered the name change before the release. The hole has been fixed.
jesus_X informs me that long ago, MozillaZine let you see the full text of unpublished articles. I guess the original hole was partially fixed, leaving only the title of the article visible.
New version of Flash Click-to-View XBL
The new version fo my Flash Click-to-View XBL works with <embed> Flash in addition to <object> Flash.
Previous versions didn't block <embed> because they used <xbl:content>, which doesn't work with replaced plugin elements (bug 190970). Previous versions didn't really work with <object> either; instead, they took advantage of the fact that Mozilla ignores most <object>s and looks at the <embed>s they contain instead. The new version uses JavaScript in the <xbl:constructor> to replace the Flash with the placeholder.
The extensions that use modified versions of my XBL, Ted Mielczarek's Flash Click-to-View and Theodore Drake's Flashblock, haven't been updated to use the new code yet. These extensions make it easier to install the XBL, but they must be reinstalled each time you get a new build.
Pornzilla is back!
The goal of the Pornzilla project is to make Mozilla into a great porn browser. We contribute to Mozilla directly, promote bookmarklets and extensions that enhance porn surfing, and maintain a list of bugs that impact porn surfing.
