When faced with a 4 hour layover at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, one way to pass the time is to wander the vast corridors and look through the countless stores inside the terminals. You can buy pretty much anything you want as long as it is …

1. a high end handbag,
2. alcohol/tobacco,
3. a fragrance of some kind.

With so many shops sporting similar items, I found myself in a permanent state of déjà vu. Just when I thought I was walking past the same store for the third time, I looked up and noticed a sign which I found slightly humorous.

The sign read “Internet Service” and it displayed Microsoft’s Internet Explorer icon as the universal symbol for getting online. If I hadn’t been “thinking like a traveler” as suggested by the renowned innovation author Tom Kelley, I probably wouldn’t have even stopped, but for some reason the sign just jumped out at me. It is not uncommon to see universal symbols used in airports or hospitals where it is important for everyone, regardless of language, to find their way around. However, this very prominent mark seemed a bit different.

While I doubt this specific usage was authorized by Microsoft (or maybe it was), using the symbol does seem somewhat appropriate. After all, it is probably safe to say that a large number of people have been exposed to IE and would immediately recognize the icon for what it is, making it very effective at communicating the idea of internet access. For me, the association between the icon and the activity is quite interesting. It seems similar to the popular example of using the trademarked name Kleenex when referring to any facial tissue. Or, take these other recent examples:

• Google as a verb for searching the web
• Tivo as a verb for recording a show on a DVR
• Rollerblades as the term to describe all inline skates
• LEGOS as a word often used to refer to any building block toy
• Here’s a list of several other examples on Wikipedia

When this happens the trademark owner will typically make a fuss and discourage people from using their trademark as a verb or in a generic way. When people started to say “I photoshopped this photo”, Adobe quickly posted proper usage instructions on their website. A page titled Permissions and Trademark Guidelines reads:

Trademarks are not verbs.

CORRECT: The image was enhanced using Adobe® Photoshop® software.
INCORRECT: The image was photoshopped.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this like the holy grail of brand building? Whenever a trademark starts to get used in a generic way to refer to a whole class of products, it typically indicates that the specific brand has achieved a dominant position in the marketplace. It seems like a pretty desirable position to be in but it is clear there may be some potentially unwanted side effects. For one thing, over time you could lose exclusive rights to your trademark and eventually your competitors might even be able to use it for their own products. There is obviously a fine line here that companies must walk. On the one hand, they must protect their intellectual property, but on the other hand they also want to maximize the popularity of their product or service.

In my mind, the real question is whether or not this phenomenon actually helps sell more products? It seems like a competitive advantage to have a brand name at the top of the consumer’s mind, but do people really make purchase decisions based on that? Going back to the sign at the airport, would customers be unhappy to find Safari or Firefox providing the access instead of Internet Explorer?