> An even better example is Aspirin - origninally a
> tradename by the Bayer
> company for its new product, acetylsylacylic acid
> (typically abbreviated
> ASA) - but it became so widely generic that everyone
> uses aspirin (small a)
> in their product names.
>

It's also interesting because "Aspirin" is still a
valid, enforceable trademark in some parts of the
world.

To give this string some hockey content, I suspect
that the trademark "Zamboni" would be very difficult
to enforce, because it's so sloppily used.  Does
anyone use the term "Ice Resurfacer"?  Not only has it
become a generic name, but it's even used as a verb
("Zamboni the ice") and as an adjective ("the Zamboni
door").  It used to be that it didn't matter, because
there was only one manufacturer, but now that there is
another, I wonder if we'll start hearing of "Olympia
Zambonis."

Clay

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