As any experienced trademark practitioner will tell you, it is a big mistake to use a trademark as a noun. Using a trademark as a noun (e.g., “Pass me a Kleenex”) instead of an adjective (e.g., “Pass me a Kleenex tissue”) risks transforming a brand name into a generic term, potentially leading to a loss of legal protection. I have contacted Trezor Company s.r.o. (the maker of the cryptocurrency wallet shown at right) to suggest that they stop making this mistake. Let’s see if, some time soon, they update their firmware and apps and web site accordingly.
More than a decade ago, Trezor Company s.r.o. designed and marketed the first-ever hardware wallet for cryptocurrency, the Trezor Model One. Since then, several other companies have been inspired by the Trezor Model One and offer competing crypto wallets. Some five years ago the Trezor company did the smart thing and obtained a US trademark registration for the standard-character mark TREZOR. (The company would be smart to make the registration “incontestable” now.)
(Fun fact: the word “trezor” in the Czech tongue may be translated into English as “vault” or “strongbox” or “safe-deposit box”.)
In my view the Trezor company did a very good thing for the world by designing and marketing the first-ever hardware wallet for cryptocurrency. The Trezor company has done many more good things, for example by crafting very helpful open standards for the function and usage of such wallets. This includes the BIP-0044 standard for multi-account wallets and the BIP-0039 standard for seed phrases, both of which have been adopted by many makers of crypto wallets. Unlike most other commercial makers of crypto wallets, the wallets from the Trezor company have always used open-source firmware and open-source apps, which prompts me to recommend their wallets over those made by other companies. And the company has designed and made available an open, auditable “secure element” chip that allows any maker of a crypto wallet to provide strong protection against physical attacks. I want very much for the Trezor company to succeed and to maintain appropriate trademark rights. This is what prompts this blog article.
But what I see is that the company has not been following best practices for trademark usage. What you see above is “Trezor” being used as a noun in the user interface of the Trezor Safe 7 wallet (firmware version 2.11.0.0). What you see at right is “Trezor” being used as a noun in the Trezor Suite app for Windows (software version 26.3.3). And what you see below, on the main page of the company’s web site, are two instances of “Trezor” being used as a noun.
These are a few examples, but the same mistake appears many dozens of times across the Trezor wallet user interface, across the Trezor apps, and across the Trezor web site.
As I say, I want very much for the Trezor company to succeed and to maintain appropriate trademark rights. This is what prompts this blog article. Let’s see if, some time soon, they update their firmware and apps and web site accordingly.
or a verb, right?
“Let me Google that and find out.”
Yes or “let me Xerox that document”. Or “I will Fedex the package to you”.
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the iPhone in this regard. Do you consider it to be the same situation? Or is there a higher risk for Trezor because the company and product share the same name?