[Grunthor]

“My roomie bought a Suzuki jeep”

I’m sure that your roomie bought a Suzuki but it was not a Jeep.

[MindBender26]

If memory serves, (law school 35 years ago) in a copyright fight, the courts held that Jeep with a capital J was a trademark of Kaiser-Willis, which became part of Chrysler, which was sold to to M-B.

jeep with a small j was held to be public domain, however. Again if memory serves.

Please file the above in useless, unconfirmed information.

[Bogtrotter52]

“....not a Jeep”

You know (hopefully) perfectly well I was using the word jeep as a general term for a type. I certainly do not assume that everyone who says they own a jeep is talking about owning a cartoon character from Popeye.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

The name “jeep” was derived from the acronym “GP” for “general purpose” vehicle. It then became a brand name, with the capital “J”. If it weren’t also a brand name “jeep” would be a better label for the type of vehicle than SUV.