Monday, May 16, 2005
Trademarks are not verbs.
From this entirely too entertaining thread at Flickr comes the following gems...
The Photoshop trademark must never be used as a common verb or as a noun. The Photoshop trademark should always be capitalized and should never be used in possessive form, or as a slang term.
CORRECT: The image was enhanced using Adobe® Photoshop® software.
INCORRECT: The image was photoshopped.
Trademarks must never be used as slang terms.
CORRECT: Those who use Adobe® Photoshop® software to manipulate images as a hobby see their work as an art form.
INCORRECT: A photoshopper sees his hobby as an art form.
INCORRECT: My hobby is photoshopping. - Proper Use of the Photoshop trademark
Google has similar rules re: their trademark, but true to form they have a sense of humor about it.
NEVER modify a mark, for example, through hyphenation, combination or abbreviation, such as: Googliscious, Googlyoogly, GaGooglemania - Google Permissions
It is kind of interesting how many brand names/trademarks have been incorporated into the common vernacular.
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