In light of the 101 closing, will there ever come a point where the word “Ironman” will become like “escalator” and WTO wont be able to claim rights to the name any more?
Personally I think that is one of the reasons that so many races just cannot compete with the IM brand. “When you finish an Iron distance event, can you call yourself an Ironman?”… how many times have we read that?!
I believe it is already at that point.
I think we have IP lawyers here (Steveperx?), but my semi-educated guess would be that Ironman-TM is not close to being generic. WTC defends the trademark and brand, and failure of 101 (along with domination of IM brand races over the ID independents), if anything, indicates the strength of the brand. Consumers clearly recognize the IM brand races and choose them.
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Well said. If Xerox could come back from the brink (recall when everyone referred to photocoying as “xeroxing”?), the IM has a long way to go to become genericized. WTC is very careful about enforcing its mark (hence all the “Ironman distance” or “Iron distance” races not licensed by WTC).
Not an IP lawyer, but it sure seems like there has to be more than just, what at most a few million people (guessing - but in relation to the general pop - verrrrrry small - why do you think Ironman gets no real love on TV like other sports) that interact and care about Ironman over the last 20 years or so - to make it in danger of being a commoditised word.
Xerox, Google, Kleenex - your talking millions upon millions upon millions of people using those words all the time for many many years.
Won’t ever happen with Ironman. Too small of scope.
I think that from a legal standpoint the term is defended well and RD’s don’t use the term “Ironman” for fear of legal action, so it’s far away from becoming a generic term legally. From a popular standpoint, however, I think it’s already been genericized within the triathlon community. If you were to go to a local tri club meeting, for example, and ask for a show of hands of who has completed an Ironman- I’d bet that nobody in the room would think to draw a distinction between having completed an “official” ironman and any other race of the same distance.
Well said. If Xerox could come back from the brink (recall when everyone referred to photocoying as “xeroxing”?), the IM has a long way to go to become genericized. WTC is very careful about enforcing its mark (hence all the “Ironman distance” or “Iron distance” races not licensed by WTC).
Another IP lawyer here, and I agree. It’s far from generic. Also, they appear to be pretty aggressive with enforcement.
