Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works Pay brain
Speaker 1: Stuff Lauren Vocabam. Here, let's say it's a hot summer
Speaker 1: day and you're enjoying a delicious frozen treat, something we
Speaker 1: would normally identify with a word that you can make
Speaker 1: by combining what Michael Jackson was the king of and
Speaker 1: one of the two tools on the former flag of
Speaker 1: the Soviet Union. And no, I am not talking about
Speaker 1: Neverland ranch hammers, though that sounds delicious anyway, If you
Speaker 1: look down at the label of your icy snack, there's
Speaker 1: a good chance that it will not be labeled with
Speaker 1: that word I just alluded to, and instead we'll say
Speaker 1: that it's a quiescently frozen confection. But what does quiescently
Speaker 1: frozen confection mean? While the jargon, why not just say
Speaker 1: a popsicle? Let's break down the phrase quiescently frozen confection.
Speaker 1: Confection just means a sweet food or dessert. I assume
Speaker 1: you know what frozen means and quiescently means at rest,
Speaker 1: this is worth specifying. In the world of frozen treats.
Speaker 1: Quiescently frozen food just sits there while it freezes. It's
Speaker 1: at rest. If you've ever made homemade ice pops out
Speaker 1: of orange juice or mountain dew and an ice cube
Speaker 1: tray in your freezer, those were quiescently frozen. This is
Speaker 1: in contrast to something like ice cream, which is not
Speaker 1: quiescently frozen. Ice Cream is frozen and whipped at the
Speaker 1: same time. In factories that make ice cream, a blade
Speaker 1: called a dasher turns inside the ice cream vat to
Speaker 1: vigorously stir the mix while it freezes. This incorporates air bubbles,
Speaker 1: which is a crucial part of forming the internal structure
Speaker 1: of the ice cream. If you just poured ice cream
Speaker 1: bis into an ice cube tray and froze it, it
Speaker 1: would not taste or feel right. This is also why
Speaker 1: when ice cream refreezes after melting, it's never quite the same.
Speaker 1: But okay, we all know what popsicle means. Why mess
Speaker 1: with this scientific term. We do this because popsicle is
Speaker 1: what we might refer to as a proprietary eponym, a
Speaker 1: word that is actually a registered trademark of a company
Speaker 1: that we've come to use as a generic term in
Speaker 1: Carmon parlance. Other examples include xerox for photocopy, band aid
Speaker 1: for adhesive bandages, velcro for those hook and loop fasteners,
Speaker 1: Kleenex for tissues, Frisbee for throwing discs, and styrofoam for
Speaker 1: extruded polystyrene foam. Now, if you're a kid asking your
Speaker 1: friend's mom if you can have another popsicle, this probably
Speaker 1: doesn't matter unless your friend's mom is a trademark lawyer
Speaker 1: for the Unilever Supply Chain Incorporated. That's because popsicle is
Speaker 1: a registered trademark of Unilever Supply Chain Incorporated. They are
Speaker 1: serious about their rights and they've definitely got them some lawyers.
Speaker 1: So how did this come to be? Popsicles are quiescently
Speaker 1: frozen confections were invented in nineteen o five by an
Speaker 1: eleven year old kid in San Francisco named Frank Epperson.
Speaker 1: When Epperson grew up, he began selling them as frozen
Speaker 1: drinks on a stick. In ninety four, he took out
Speaker 1: a patent for his frozen confectionery. By n he had
Speaker 1: started calling these frozen confectioneries popsicles, the apparent logic being
Speaker 1: soda pop us icicle, or possibly his kids called them
Speaker 1: icicles that they're pop made that year he sold the
Speaker 1: rights to the Joe Low Company in New York. Fast
Speaker 1: forward to when Uni leaver subsidiary Good Humor bought the
Speaker 1: rights to the name popsicle. Uni Leaver still owns those rights,
Speaker 1: But do they really care if you use the term generically? Oh? Yes.
Speaker 1: According to UNI Leaver's public facing website, you should never
Speaker 1: use popsicle as a noun, but rather as a modifier,
Speaker 1: meaning you don't want a popsicle, you want a popsical
Speaker 1: ice pop. Similarly, you shouldn't pluralize the word. You're not
Speaker 1: going to go to the store to buy popsicles, You're
Speaker 1: gonna buy popsicle pops. And if you said that you
Speaker 1: love popsicles great taste, you're talking about the flavor of
Speaker 1: a company. If you're talking about the food product, you
Speaker 1: would be correct to say the great taste of popsicle
Speaker 1: ice pops. And if you happen to decide to start
Speaker 1: a business selling your own quiescently frozen confections, don't think
Speaker 1: all normal people call them popsicles. It'll be fine. Don't
Speaker 1: be so sure. Lawyers are not normal people, and you will.
Speaker 1: Leavers trademark warriors have gone after small businesses before and
Speaker 1: demanded that all infringement of the popsical trademark be scrubbed
Speaker 1: from existence. So remember, next time you're about to leave
Speaker 1: some event early and you want to sound cool, don't
Speaker 1: say let's blow this popsicle stand. Say let's blow this
Speaker 1: quiescently frozen confection stand like a good law abiding citizen.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Joe McCormick and produced by
Speaker 1: Tyler Clang. To hear more from Joe, check out his
Speaker 1: podcast Stuff to Blow Your Mind, and, of course, for
Speaker 1: more on this and lots of other law abiding topics,
Speaker 1: visit our home planet, how Stuff Works dot com