[生活美語] Proprietary Eponym [通用商標]: English brand names that have become regular nouns. [成為普通名詞的英文商標]

Proprietary eponyms are general words that are, or were at one time, proprietary brand names or service marks. Kleenex, for example, is a brand of facial tissues, yet the word is used today to refer to facial tissues of any brand. Xerox is a brand of photocopy machine; that word, too, has been since adopted to refer to any brand of photocopy machine and, moreover, also employed as a verb to describe the act of photocopying.

通用商標，類似通用名稱，不同的是後者一般用於區別不同種類的商品（如「電腦」），而前者則多指由馳名商標轉化而成的通用名稱。通用商標不再具有顯著性和 代表性，不能代表某一個品牌的商品，不能繼續用作商標。如「Aspirin」（阿司匹林），一般不獲承認為商標，而視為一種藥物的統稱。又如「Yoyo」 （搖搖），現在作為「溜溜球」的統稱。因為Google的名聲，「Google」一個事物做動詞表示的是「在Google上尋找某事」。它還有廣義的「搜 索網路」的意思。Google官方並不鼓勵這種濫用他們公司名字的習慣，因為它可能會導致Google變成一個通用商標名。

Complete Lists:
1. http://www.searstower.org/rkrause/brands.html
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_genericized_trademarks

Sources:
http://www.rinkworks.com/words/eponyms.shtml
http://www.businessinsider.com/15-words-you-had-no-idea-used-to-be-brand-names-2010-9?op=1
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/通用商標
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_genericized_trademarks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genericized_trademark