Today I learned the term "Genericide," which is effectively when a trademarked term becomes so culturally ubiquitous -or generic- that it loses its protection and can be used commercially by anyone. Trademark law is to protect the image of your brand. When someone hears "Pepsi," they immediately imagine the soft drink. But when you hear "Trampoline," do you picture the specific brand that trademarked the term in the 1930s? Or do you picture a generic trampoline?
Effectively, the term "trampoline" became so synonymous with any spring-powered bouncing platform that the term lost all meaning as a unique brand. Hearing "trampoline" no longer made people think of the specific brand, but of a generic type of product. It'd be like if the term "Pepsi" became more associated with fizzy drinks in general than the specific Pepsi recipe.
The Supreme Court ruled that trademark no longer applied, since there was no way to prevent brand confusion. There was no longer a stable enough brand image to defend, so it literally lost its trademark protection. Now any bouncy platform can be called a trampoline.
Anyway, a very similar thing is happening to the term "Mommy," wherein any woman can be called-
