To xerox, to google.... to trademark
 

Question for the GFY trademark experts:

If Xerox was worried about the use of the word "xerox" as a verb ("to xerox" instead of "to make a photocopy") because it placed their trademark in danger of being declared a generic word by the courts and Xerox even started a media campaign to convince the public that "Xerox" should not be used as a verb, then shouldn't Google be worried about the use of the word "google" as a verb?

I think that's almost crazy to trademark this but well, they've got the money to spend for anything that will come to their mind. Btw. the word Google comes from the word googol - 10 raised to the 100-th power.

These days Google = search

15 years ago: "I'm gonna search stuff about the old Egypt on the library"

Year 2010: "Google old+Egypt"


Soon the world will be owned by big companies ... oh shit looks like it already happened :1orglaugh

It's very common to use the word xerox as a verb here in Brazil, but we don't use google as a verb just because it doesn't sounds well in Portuguese.

A good friend of my father's wife is CEO of Xerox.

yes, but people didn't say "I'm gonna yahoo that".

These days people use the word "google" to say they are going to look something up on the internet.