R.I.P. Kerosene
US trademark 1854 · generic in the United States by the 1860s
The story
Abraham Gesner, a Nova Scotian geologist, coined 'kerosene' in the 1840s (a contraction of keroselaion, wax-oil) and registered it as a trademark in the United States in 1854. For a few years only his North American Gas Light Company and the Downer Company could sell lamp oil under the name. Then Drake struck oil in Pennsylvania in 1859, refiners everywhere began making lamp fuel from petroleum without going anywhere near Gesner's coal-oil patents, and every one of them sold it as kerosene. No cancellation, no lawsuit - just supply.
The moral
The 19th century's brightest brand, in every sense.
One grave, one country. Genericide is decided jurisdiction by jurisdiction and class by class. This is a United States story; in Britain and much of the Commonwealth the same fuel has always been called paraffin, so the word never had a career there to lose.