VELCRO® Brand would like everyone to stop saying “velcro” for things not made by their brand. They want you to start calling it its technical name “hook and loop.”
This is similar to the problem we all have when we just automatically call tissues, “Kleenex” or bandages, “Band Aids.” We tend to call products by a common brand name and apparently this causes trademark issues for companies.
Because the VELCRO® legal team has to constantly defend its “brand name” when people really are using “hook and loop” products, they decided to take action, not with more lawyers or paperwork but with song.
In a spoof of “We Are The World” the legal team is begging us to start calling similar products not made by them “hook and loop” or otherwise they will lose their trademark.
Old habits die hard so we probably will never call it “hook and loop” but the song was a nice touch. Keep trying, VELCRO® Brand team, best of luck.
