A Noun? A Verb? TiVo Says It’s Neither

This reminds me of the idiotic efforts by Hormel to change how people write about spam. They seem to think that there’s some magic switch they can flip that will suddenly rearrange peoples’ thought patterns so that “spam” doesn’t mean “junk email I didn’t ask for and can’t get rid of”. Languages change based on how people actually use them, not how some random small organizations THINK we should use them. In cases like these, people just blink and say “Well, whatever… you’re spending all that money to do WHAT? Spend it on something actually worth it!” (Like doing something to stop spammers from causing us all headaches.)

I really don’t think somebody being all high and mighty and telling thousands, even millions, of people that they’re using their own vernacular incorrectly is going to do much good. People are going to go on speaking however they like, learned from others around them, from reading, and so on. If you want to change speech patterns, you have to find a way to inject a new usage into the language that flows in naturally and isn’t the result of some high-handed proclamation that no one is going to ever read.

Kinda like how the Quebecois and French language police are trying to stop French from stealing English idioms (like “le blue-jeans”) and, I’m sure, not getting anywhere.

Actually, it’s an attempt to protect their trademark and keep it from becoming generic. If a company doesn’t at least make an effort to protect the trademark, it can fall into generic usage, like “linoleum.”

There’s nothing unusual about this, it happens every time that a single product becomes synonymous for all products of that type. All in all, it’s a pretty good problem to have.

Unless, of course, you originally held the trademarks on “linoleum”, “escalator”, “yo-yo”, or “zipper.” Then it’s pretty crummy to see dozens of companies selling things with your name, and you not getting a dime for it.

Yes, but common usage of a trademarked name can cause something to become generic. See The International Trademark Association for more information.

They aren’t telling you not to tell people to “TiVo” something, they are telling the media not to use the term in that way.