[Nifty3929]

I think this is one of those weird cases where they have to tell you the opposite of what they actually want, for legal reasons.

I think VELCRO(r) actually DOES want everybody to use their name the way it is commonly used - it's good for brand recognition.

But legally, retaining control of their brand requires them to clearly defend it from such generic use. This post is an example of that. If someone is using their brand in a way they don't want (like on a product not made by them), they can win a trademark case in court by pointing to posts like this.

[acyou]

Ding ding ding. They even throw their lawyers under the bus, saying that they are discouraging use of the term Velcro for the purpose of legal defense of their valuable Velcro trademark. Did this gain any real traction at any point?

[janci]

Same as LEGO brick controversy. Supposedly the bricks are not Legos, LEGOs and certainly not legos. At least per their legal dept.

[ajcp]

I think it's a North American thing to call anything LEGO "Legos", denoting that it is a thing made up of many pieces of "Lego" right? In Europe if you pointed to a LEGO set or a pile of LEGO pieces every response you'd get would be "that's LEGO". But then again in Europe, or at least in Germany, we had many different brands to choose from for the same kind of construction play, whereas in North America it seemed like it's just LEGO.

[qingcharles]

I agree, in the UK I never heard them referred to as "Legos" and only ever heard that in American media. It always felt like one of those sloppy contractions Americans use, like "Do you wanna go with?" and "I'll write him"

[zdimension]

One in France (or other European French-speaking countries) would say "des Legos" to refer to a bunch of Lego pieces or Lego sets. "Un Lego" would mean a single Lego brick.

[JohnFen]

There are several different brands of LEGO-compatible bricks in the US. In practice, though, the bricks are called "legos" generically, whether they're LEGO or not.

[bena]

Yes, the people who say "Lego" is the "correct" plural are also wrong according to the document they cite for that opinion.

The Lego Group's material says that you are never to use Lego as a noun. It's always "Lego bricks", "Lego sets", "Lego minifigures", etc.

Colloquially, they don't really care what you call them, plural or singular.

[NegativeK]

There's a middle ground between not having enough brand recognition and losing control over your trademark to the point where it becomes generic.

Defending and suing helps keep it in the middle ground, but they're not going to sue Pat on the street for misusing the word -- which is where generic comes from, right?