TiVo is fighting to protect its name from generic usage (December 13, 2004 article from NYT… in the $ archive already, sorry). I don’t really care whether they are successful or not, but I imagine they are doomed to failure. In the long term, inventing a new word and creating a new category of service/product are pretty rewarding, no matter how the business turns out. Yes, it’s not my money or my company, but take the longer view. Also, do you really want to discourage amusing comments like this one from Brent Simmons?