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I'm going to chalk this one up to human nature. As far as I can tell, people
like to shorten names. Instead of saying "LEGO brand building bricks", they say
"LEGOs". Call it a nick-name, or even an abbreviation .I could walk around all
day saying "Pentium 4 Processor", but I don't. I abbreviate it to "P4". People
insist on calling me "El" even though my name, and what I prefer to be called,
is "Elroy".
If you focus too much on the individual words that people are using, there's a
good chance that you'll miss what they are actually saying. Missing the forest
for the trees sort of thing.
So, yeah, I agree that it's "LEGO brand building bricks" (or parts or whatever),
but I'm going to abbreviate it to LEGOs. If someone doesn't understand my
abbreviation, then I'll gladly explain to them what it means if they ask, just
like I would any other abbreviation that they might not have come across before.
-Elroy (a.k.a, El)
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In lugnet.mediawatch, Elroy Davis wrote:
> I'm going to chalk this one up to human nature. As far as I can tell, people
> like to shorten names. Instead of saying "LEGO brand building bricks", they say
> "LEGOs". Call it a nick-name, or even an abbreviation .I could walk around all
> day saying "Pentium 4 Processor", but I don't. I abbreviate it to "P4". People
> insist on calling me "El" even though my name, and what I prefer to be called,
> is "Elroy".
>
> If you focus too much on the individual words that people are using, there's a
> good chance that you'll miss what they are actually saying. Missing the forest
> for the trees sort of thing.
>
> So, yeah, I agree that it's "LEGO brand building bricks" (or parts or whatever),
> but I'm going to abbreviate it to LEGOs. If someone doesn't understand my
> abbreviation, then I'll gladly explain to them what it means if they ask, just
> like I would any other abbreviation that they might not have come across before.
>
> -Elroy (a.k.a, El)
This is pretty much my position. The purpose of language is to communicate
ideas. It doesn't really matter what words are used, as long as the idea behind
them is understood. If using 'legos' or 'lego' communicates the idea as well as
using 'lego bricks' or 'lego brand building bricks', and I would argue that it
does, even to those that it grates on ;), then I for one am going to use the
shorter version. This is on a purely conversational level though (including
online conversations such as these), which I really don't think can or should be
policed for something as tedious as trademark violations. In more formal
communications eg. any website I might create to display my models, I will play
by the rules, if only to save me from hassles with overly pedantic lawyer types
(is there any other kind?)
Cheers,
Allister
ps. speaking of language that grates, my pet peeve is when people use 'my MOC',
and signs on trucks that say 'Caution. Vehicle Constantly Stopping'.
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In lugnet.mediawatch, Allister McLaren wrote:
> This is on a purely conversational level though (including online
> conversations such as these), which I really don't think can or should be
> policed for something as tedious as trademark violations.
They can, but not for stuff like this. Ignoring the trademark-owner's wish on
usage does not actually constitute a legal trademark violation. Improper usage,
yes, but legal violations are only when one person is using and/or claiming as
his own a trademark that belongs to someone else.
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