Protecting the brand: Google doesn't want to be next Thermos
This is interesting: To google or not to google? It's a legal question (via Slashdot).
This reminds me of an old marketing lesson that, you want your brand to be popular but you don't want it to become synonymous with the product. Then you may even lose the brand. This happened to "thermos", which was originally the name of the company that made vacuum flasks.
Some other brands that became synonymous (Genericized trademark is the technical term) with the products: Escalators (for well, escalators 
), Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid), Xerox (photo copiers), Surf (a washing powder in India), Hoover (Vacuum cleaner), even Colgate (for toothpaste, in parts of India).
Linux (the trademark) itself was at the core of some such legal battle (I can't find more info on that, was it in Australia?). Someone please post a link if you know more on the Linux trademark issue.
