The marketing folks at TiVo have done too good of a job. Apparently they sent a nasty letter to the networks demanding that they stop using "TiVo" as a verb (i'll link to an article once i figure out how to insert links...) The worry is that the word "TiVo" has become so common, that it is at risk of enterting the public domain.
The same thing happened to Kleenex and Xerox: everyone started calling tissues Kleenex, and instead of saying "photocopying" everyone said Xerox (which must have sounded futuristic at the time. I wonder if Google is beginning to worry about this?)
The downside to having your trademark enter the public domain is that you lose exclusive rights to the name. Your competitors can use it. Customer confustion ensues.
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