Susanne - while I basically agree with your thoughts, I also have to look at how the brand name of other products has been taken in as a generic term, and so essentially taken away from the creator. When you sneeze you ask for a "kleenex" rather than a tissue, although "Kleenex" is a registered trademake for one particular tissue. When you want to make a copy of a document you "xerox" it, although "Xerox" is the name of one of the companies that makes photocopying machines (though you'd not ever "Canon", or "Ricoh", a document.) The man who refined the flushing toilet was named Thomas Crapper, and we all know what happened to the poor man's name as it came to be associated with the device! And my own first name, "John", has flushed the same unfortunate route as that of Mr. Crapper (although I personally would never stoop to using it).
I'm not saying that either side of this is right, but am wanting to help see why a company, which has worked hard to establish a product name, might want to protect the product name. Of course, they might also be full of crap!
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