# 3 Between a Kleenex and a fridge
Whatever its origins, the Jeep name has become absolutely iconic in the industry and even beyond. I’d put its status on a par with Kleenex, Kodak or Frigidaire. These brand names became so associated with the products they made that they came to be used to designate any tissue paper, pocket camera or refrigerator. Absolute gold for a company.
Nowadays, the power of the Jeep name has been diluted a little bit, but many folks still refer to any real all-terrain vehicle – not the spiffed-up pseudo-off-roading urban SUVs – as, well, a jeep, without the capital letter.
# 4 It’s mine! No, it’s mine!
As we mentioned, that kind of name recognition is gold for the company that owns it. And so it was that as early as 1943, Willys filed to own the copyright to the Jeep name; the courts, however, decided it belonged to Bantam. Undeterred, Willys produced the CJ-2A as of 1945; it became known as the first Civilian jeep, destined for non-military customers. In the event, as Willys was the only company in the post-war period in the business of producing jeeps, it was finally given the right to capitalize that ‘j’; as of 1950, it owned the Jeep name.
