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Comment by bigiain | Hacker News Reader

On the other hand, imagine the tsunami of lawyer-shit you'd be drowning in if you started a record label called "iPhone Corp" today?

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That’s different because the iPhone is not a generic object like a fruit. You could totally call a business Macintosh Records and get away with it though

I'd argue that iPhone is a generic term like band aid or Google.

"Pad" and "Pod" are certainly generic.

https://blog.tracyjonglawfirm.com/has-ipad-become-a-generic-...

> I'd argue that iPhone is a generic term like band aid or Google.

And you would lose that argument. 2/3 of those are not generic terms.

Yeah I don’t think iPhone flies as generic but by god in my time of technical support do I find people refer to all manner of cheap $50-$100 Walmart special android tablets as “iPads” and it’s caused me more than a few headaches.

Recently, Apple sued a company over of its pear shaped logo : https://www.macrumors.com/2020/08/08/legal-action-against-co...

And other organisations as well:

https://www.macrumors.com/2019/03/05/apple-norway-progress-p...

https://www.macrumors.com/2019/05/01/apple-opposes-german-cy...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc._litigation#Trademar...

If it wasn't Apple, it would have been Disney.

http://www.mtv.com/news/3020742/fake-nickelodeon-products-pe...

Almost entirely because that's not a word. Calling something "Lightning" would be a lot closer, as a trademark they use but with very conditional mindshare.

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