Adobe are you serious ?
Photoshop has become so dominant that its name is used as verb/noun !! BUT ... Adobe wants no part in a pop-culture phenomenon having to do with their product !!! How ??
Look at this legal disclaimer page from Adobe :
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. It should be used as an adjective to describe the product and should never be used in abbreviated form. The following examples illustrate these rules:
Trademarks are not verbs !
• Correct: The image was enhanced using Adobe® Photoshop® software.
• Incorrect: The image was photoshopped.
Trademarks are not nouns.
• Correct: The image pokes fun at the Senator.
• Incorrect: The photoshop pokes fun at the Senator.
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.
Adobe thinks this is protecting their Trademark – by making sure no one uses it as a noun.
Is this protecting Adobe's trademark ? I don't think so !!
Why not actually accept the fact that the internet loves to use Photoshop as a verb and start marketing to us in our own interpretation of the brand?
Ignoring Photoshopping/Photoshopped and telling us we should and should not use it, is basically saying you don’t like us being social with the product. And yet Photoshop is used to design half the memes around the internet.
I’m always amazed at companies who think their legal departments are in a position to influence the way language evolves. We already have Google trying to forbid using its name as a verb, and now this.
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