For a long time it has been misused and nearly disappeared. It is about 40+ trademarks owned by a holding company. It could have been worse if this was scattered among a lot of different entities. So, this is still kind of a big deal as they can acquire all of them
The new generation has no idea
Talking to the younger generation about the 8 bit era is wild. I mentioned that my first system (TRS-80) had 4k to someone and they expressed surprise at that you could get a monitor that good back then.
How would that work? So anyone could release anything under the Commodore brand? That would be awful.
That said, why can’t there be nostalgic 80s/90s consoles AND same-era computers?
No, I meant, if you want to provide video games, just provide whatever is current and popular. Also, they should research whether there is actually a need for this. One suspects that such a thing already exists.
Would any of the many replacement/emulation/FPGA efforts that already exist be better with a specific logo? More convenient? Cheaper? More successful? I have serious doubts.
This feels, as the saying goes, like a big fat nothingburger.
I would claim that in my generation (people born after Commodore's heyday), those who are interested in retrocomputing topics (a minority) are similarly aware of the C64 and the Amiga and their cultural relevances.
Admittedly didn't register with me at first but this is hilarious.
That’s not the same thing. Trademarks become generalised terms in the public’s mind, not legally. Two people in conversation might refer to a non-Xerox photocopier as a Xerox, but a non-Xerox photocopier company can’t just advertise their products as being Xerox.
Additionally, from the wikipedia page you linked (emphasis mine):
> A trademark thus popularized is at risk of being challenged or revoked, unless the trademark owner works sufficiently to correct and prevent such broad use.
Which, again, goes directly counter to the idea of a public domain trademark.
When a trademark becomes "genericized," the trademark is lost and any other company can use it for their own products. The word "escalator" used to be a trademark and now anyone can sell escalators and market them as such.
Independent certification that something fits a brand but anyone is allowed to use the brand if they pass certification.
It would need a non-profit or government support though.
Things like "Organic" already do that a bit, but it doesn't work too well over there.
But then it’s not public domain (which was the argument I was replying to). Public domain means everyone can do it without permission, while applying for a certification still requires a governing body which has the ultimate power.
> Things like "Organic" already do that a bit
That’s a classification, not a trademark.