IIRC 'bic' is used primarily in France.
These companies trying to stop the use of their name seem crazy to me (unless they are 'complaining' just to get some more press). So much promotion.
These companies trying to stop the use of their name seem crazy to me (unless they are 'complaining' just to get some more press). So much promotion.
This happened (or at least went to court) with Hoover in the UK I think. Hoover had become the generic term for a Vacuum Cleaner and so any company could make and sell products described as Hoovers (or at least it was an open legal question).
This means it is far from crazy to defend a trademark from generic use.
The companies are worried about loss of "uniqueness" (aka. "trademark dilution"), which is a special form of protection that famous and unambiguous trademarks get. Now that the Google trademark is considered unique, you can't start a Gourmet Google Goulash restaurant, even though there is no risk of consumers being confused about who they are dealing with. The law is worried that Google's brand strength might be diluted by their brand managers not having the stage completely to themselves.
I think this whole area of law is fairly recent - Wikipedia says it grew out of anti-cybersquatting efforts in the mid 1990s.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_trademark#Trademark_er...