Sometimes, it's just too Delicious to let go: Define "photocopier" - under oath.

3/2011

One of the thousands of "DOTC Informers" tipped me off to some goings-on in the Mistake by the Lake, The Rock and Roll Capital of the World - Cleveland.

This is no lie.

As we on this side struggle to define Managed Print Services, there are Public workers everywhere who still call the machine which makes copies a xerox.

Think I'm too tough on the public sector? 

Here is a sample from a deposition last year that seemed to get stuck on the definition of "photocopier".

Lawyers and a witness - you can not make this stuff up:

Marburger: Do you have a secretary?

Patterson: No.

Marburger: Does anybody there have a secretary?

Patterson: Yes.

Marburger: Have you ever heard a secretary use the term "photocopy"?

Patterson: No.

Marburger: Have you ever--do you have machines there where I can put in a paper document, push a button or two, and out will come copies of that paper document also on paper? Do you have such a machine?

Patterson: Yes, sir.

Marburger: What do you call that machine?

Patterson: Xerox.

Marburger: Xerox. Is the machine made by the Xerox Company? Is that why it's called Xerox?

Patterson: No.

Marburger: So Xerox, in the parlance that you've described, the language that you've described, is being used generically as opposed to describing a particular brand; is that right?

Patterson: All of my life I've just known people to say Xerox. It's not commonplace to use the terminology that you're using.

Marburger: You mean it's more -- people say Xerox instead of photocopy?

Patterson: If you're referring to a type of machine where you place a piece of paper on the top and press a button and out comes copies of it, they usually refer to it as a Xerox.

Marburger: Have you ever heard it referred to as photocopying?

Patterson: Not with my generation, no.


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