22 Everyday English Words That Started as Brands

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Many items we use every day, like escalators and memory sticks, were once brand names. Even Aspirin is a brand name. These names are or were trademarked, but are now often used to describe any brand in a product category.

Band-aid is one of the most widely-known genericized brands that was originally trademarked by Johnson & Johnson in 1920 and still stands today.

The word "thermos" was declared a generic term in 1963, this was originally trademarked by Thermos, LLC in 1904.

Indeed, you can't call any old frozen treat on a stick a Popsicle. The name is trademarked by the Unilever-owned Popsicle company, which traces its roots back to 1905. The company maintains an entire webpage to educating the public on how to use the term "Popsicle" correctly.

Realtor is a legally recognized trademark of the National Association of Realtors, referring to members of its group, not real estate agents in general.

Aspirin was a registered trademark owned by German pharmaceutical company Bayer until 1919 when it was revoked in several countries including the US, the UK and France.

ChapStick remains is a registered trademark of Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant behind a number of the most notable name-brand medications.

Bubble wrap was originally trademarked by the Sealed Air Corporation in 1960.

Believe it or not, Ping Pong is actually the name of a brand of table tennis tables, not the game itself. The game is called the "table tennis".

Many people refer to the removable computer memory devices like USB flash drives and memory cards as Memory Sticks, but the term is actually a trademark owned by Sony.

Otis Elevator Co. trademarked the word “escalator” in 1899.

Time codes:
0:00 Band-aid
1:01 Thermos
2:16 Jacuzzi
3:33 Popsicle
4:14 Realtor
4:44 Aspirin
5:18 SPAM
6:10 About “From Intermediate to Advanced” course
7:41 Xerox
8:29 Chapstick
8:40 Sharpie
8:52 Post-it
9:12 Bubble wrap
9:36 Google and Photoshop
10:37 Coke
11:08 Vaseline
12:00 Kleenex
12:33 Ping Pong
13:01 Yo-Yo and Frisbee
13:11 Memory stick
13:51 Escalator

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