“阿斯匹林”为一种常用药物的名称,几乎是家喻户晓,但是,很少有人知道,“阿斯匹林”最初仅是一种药品的商标,而不是一种药物的普通名称。这里面有一个沉痛的教训:本世纪初,阿斯匹林的发明者德国拜尔公司在为其产品注册商标时,由于一时的疏忽而将“A”字小写了,于是aspirin 就成了一个普通名词,而不是一个专用名词 Aspirin is almost universally known as a commonly used drug, but few know that aspirin was originally a trademark of a drug, not a generic name for a drug. There's a painful lesson here: As early as the beginning of this century, Aspen's inventor, Bayer, Germany, had “A” written in lowercase when it registered a trademark for its products, so aspirin became a Common noun, not a special noun