 | |
Xerox headquarters in Norwalk
| |
Formerly
| Haloid Photographic Company |
|---|---|
| Public | |
| Traded as | NYSE: XRX S&P 500 Component |
| ISIN | US9841211033  |
| Industry | Information technology |
| Founded | April 18, 1906 Rochester, New York, U.S. |
| Founders | Joseph C. Wilson Chester Carlson |
| Headquarters | Norwalk, CT,
,
U.S.
|
Area served
| Worldwide |
Key people
|
|
| Products | Office printers, production printers & digital presses, multi-function printers, wide format printers, projectors, scanners copiers, and other office equipment |
| Services | Document services |
| Revenue |  US$10.265 billion (2017) |
 US$570 million (2017) | |
| US$195 million (2017) | |
| Total assets | US$15.946 billion (2017) |
| Total equity | US$5.256 billion (2017) |
Number of employees
| 27000 |
| Parent | Xerox Holdings Corporation |
| Website | www |
Xerox Holdings Corporation (/ˈzɪərɒks/; also known as Xerox) is an American global corporation that sells print and digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut (having moved from Stamford, Connecticut, in October 2007), though its largest population of employees is based around Rochester, New York, the area in which the company was founded. The company purchased Affiliated Computer Services for $6.4 billion in early 2010. As a large developed company, it is consistently placed in the list of Fortune 500 companies.
On December 31, 2016, Xerox separated its business process service operations, essentially those operations acquired with the purchase of Affiliated Computer Services, into a new publicly traded company, Conduent. Xerox focuses on its document technology and document outsourcing business, and continues to trade on the NYSE.
Researchers at Xerox and its Palo Alto Research Center invented several important elements of personal computing, such as the desktop metaphor GUI, the computer mouse and desktop computing. The concepts were adopted by Apple and later Microsoft. Xerox did release the 6085 desktop publishing system in 1986 (before IBM and Microsoft), but an inferior operating system, obsolete hard drive (a 20MB drive weighed over 40lbs/18kg), and weak software (documents paginated at one per second), doomed the model, as Apple and Microsoft's hardware and OS software offered much greater functionality. Xerox also released a 4045 desktop laser printer whose cartridges could print 50,000 pages (instead of 5,000), but the model never caught on, and Xerox abandoned future efforts to focus more on its core businesses.
History
Xerox was founded in 1906 in Rochester as The Haloid Photographic Company, which originally manufactured photographic paper and equipment.
In 1938 Chester Carlson,
a physicist working independently, invented a process for printing
images using an electrically charged photoconductor-coated metal plate
and dry powder "toner". However, it would take more than 20 years of
refinement before the first automated machine to make copies was
commercialized, using a document feeder, scanning light, and a rotating drum.
Joseph C. Wilson,
credited as the "founder of Xerox", took over Haloid from his father.
He saw the promise of Carlson's invention and, in 1946, signed an
agreement to develop it as a commercial product. Wilson remained as
President/CEO of Xerox until 1967 and served as Chairman until his death
in 1971.
Looking for a term to differentiate its new system, Haloid coined the term xerography from two Greek roots meaning "dry writing".
Haloid subsequently changed its name to Haloid Xerox in 1958 and then Xerox Corporation in 1961.
Before releasing the 914, Xerox tested the market by introducing a
developed version of the prototype hand-operated equipment known as the
Flat-plate 1385. The 1385 was not actually a viable copier because of
its speed of operation. As a consequence, it was sold as a platemaker
for the Addressograph-Multigraph Multilith 1250 and related sheet-fed offset printing presses in the offset lithography market. It was little more than a high quality, commercially available plate camera mounted as a horizontal rostrum camera,
complete with photo-flood lighting and timer. The glass film/plate had
been replaced with a selenium-coated aluminum plate. Clever electrics
turned this into a quick developing and reusable substitute for film. A
skilled user could produce fast, paper and metal printing plates of a
higher quality than almost any other method. Having started as a
supplier to the offset lithography duplicating industry, Xerox now set
its sights on capturing some of offset's market share.
The 1385 was followed by the first automatic xerographic printer,
the Copyflo, in 1955. The Copyflo was a large microfilm printer which
could produce positive prints on roll paper from any type of microfilm
negative. Following the Copyflo, the process was scaled down to produce
the 1824 microfilm printer. At about half the size and weight, this
still sizable machine printed onto hand-fed, cut-sheet paper which was
pulled through the process by one of two gripper bars. A scaled-down
version of this gripper feed system was to become the basis for the 813
desktop copier.
Xerox 914
The company came to prominence in 1959 with the introduction of the Xerox 914, "the most successful single product of all time." The 914, the first plain paper photocopier, was developed by Carlson and John H. Dessauer;
it was so popular that by the end of 1961 Xerox had almost $60 million
in revenue. The product was sold by an innovative ad campaign showing
that even monkeys could make copies at the touch of a button -
simplicity would become the foundation of future Xerox products and user
interfaces. Revenues leaped to over $500 million by 1965.
Xeronic Computer Printer
In 1956 Haloid formed a joint venture in the UK with Rank Organisation
whose Rank Precision Industries Ltd subsidiary where charged with
Anglicising the US products. Rank's Precision Industries went on to
develop the Xeronic computer printer and Rank Data Systems Ltd was set
up to bring the product to market. It used cathode ray tubes to generate
the characters and forms could be overlaid from microfilm images.
Initially they worked with the Ferranti and AEI computer companies with
the aim that these companies would sell the Xeronic as an on-line
peripheral, but due to interface problems Rank switched to a magnetic
tape off-line mode of working. In 1962 Lyons Computers Ltd. placed an
order for use with their LEO III computer, with the printer being delivered in 1964. It printed at 2,888 lines per minute, below the design target of 5,000 lpm.
1960s
In the 1960s, Xerox held a dominant position in the photocopier market,
and the company expanded substantially, making millionaires of some
long-suffering investors who had nursed the company through the slow
research and development phase of the product.
In 1960, a xerography research facility called the Wilson Center for Research and Technology was opened in Webster, New York. In 1961, the company changed its name to Xerox Corporation. Xerox common stock (XRX) was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1961 and on the Chicago Stock Exchange in 1990.
In 1963 Xerox introduced the Xerox 813, the first desktop
plain-paper copier, realizing Carlson's vision of a copier that could
fit on anyone's office desk. Ten years later in 1973, a basic, analogue,
color copier, based on the 914, followed. The 914 itself was gradually
sped up to become the 420 and 720. The 813 was similarly developed into
the 330 and 660 products and, eventually, also the 740 desktop
microfiche printer.
Xerox's first foray into duplicating, as distinct from copying,
was with the Xerox 2400, introduced in 1966. The model number denoted
the number of prints produced in an hour. Although not as fast as offset printing,
this machine introduced the industry's first automatic document feeder,
paper slitter and perforator, and collator (sorter). This product was
soon sped up by fifty percent to become the Xerox 3600 Duplicator.
Meanwhile, a small lab team was borrowing 914 copiers and
modifying them. The lab was developing what it called long distance
xerography (LDX) to connect two copiers using the public telephone
network, so that a document scanned on one machine would print out on
the other. The LDX system was introduced in 1964. Many years later this
work came to fruition in the Xerox telecopiers, seminal to today's fax machines. The fax operation in today's multifunction copiers is true to Carlson's original vision for these devices.
In 1968, C. Peter McColough, a longtime executive of Haloid and Xerox, became Xerox's CEO.[18] The same year, the company consolidated its headquarters at Xerox Square in downtown Rochester, New York, with its 30-story Xerox Tower.
Xerox embarked on a series of acquisitions. It purchased University Microfilms International in 1962, Electro-Optical Systems in 1963, and R.R. Bowker in 1967. In 1969, Xerox acquired Scientific Data Systems (SDS), which it renamed the Xerox Data Systems (XDS) division and which produced the Sigma line and its successor XDS 5xx series of mainframe computers in the 1960s and 1970s. Xerox sold XDS to Honeywell in 1975.
Former manufacturing facility in Henrietta, New York, constructed in the 1960s and sold to Harris RF Communications in 2010
Xerox Canada Head Office at North American Life Centre (Xerox Tower), North York, Ontario
Xerox Training Center
1970s
Archie McCardell was named president of the company in 1971. During his tenure, Xerox introduced the Xerox 6500, its first color copier. During McCardell's reign at Xerox, the company announced record revenues, earnings and profits in 1973, 1974, and 1975. John Carrol became a backer, later spreading the company throughout North America.
In the mid-1970s, Xerox introduced the "Xerox 9200 Duplicating
System". Originally designed to be sold to print shops, to increase
their productivity, it was twice a fast as the 3600 duplicator at two
impressions per second (7200 per hour). It was followed by the 9400,
which did auto-duplexing, and then by the 9500, which was which added
variable zoom reduction and electronic lightness/darkness control.
In a 1975 Super Bowl commercial
for the 9200, Xerox debuted an advertising campaign featuring "Brother
Dominic", a monk who used the 9200 system to save decades of manual
copying.
Before it was aired, there was some concern that the commercial would
be denounced as blasphemous. However, when the commercial was screened
for the Archbishop of New York, he found it amusing and gave it his
blessing. Dominic, portrayed by Jack Eagle, became the face of Xerox into the 1980s.
Following these years of record profits, in 1975, Xerox resolved an anti-trust suit with the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which at the time was under the direction of Frederic M. Scherer. The Xerox consent decree resulted in the forced licensing of the company's entire patent portfolio, mainly to Japanese competitors. Within four years of the consent decree, Xerox's share of the U.S. copier market dropped from nearly 100% to less than 14%.
In 1979, Xerox purchased Western Union International (WUI) as the basis for its proposed Xerox Telecommunications Network
(XTEN) for local-loop communications. However, after three years, in
1982, the company decided the idea was a mistake and sold its assets to MCI at a loss.
1980s
David T. Kearns,
a Xerox executive since 1971, took over as CEO in 1982. The company was
revived in the 1980s and 1990s, through improvement in quality design
and realignment of its product line. Attempting to expand beyond
copiers, in 1981 Xerox introduced a line of electronic memory
typewriters, the Memorywriter, which gained 20% market share, mostly at the expense of IBM.
In 1983 Xerox bought Crum & Forster, an insurance company, and formed Xerox Financial Services (XFS) in 1984.
In 1985 Xerox sold all of its publishing subsidiaries including University Microfilms and R.R. Bowker.
1990s
Xerox "Pixellated X" logo introduced in 1994
In 1990 Paul Allaire,
a Xerox executive since 1966, succeeded David Kearns, who had reached
mandatory retirement age. Allaire disentangled Xerox from the financial
services industry.
Development of digital photocopiers in the 1990s and a revamp of
the entire product range again gave Xerox a technical lead over its
competitors. In 1990, Xerox released the DocuTech
Production Publisher Model 135, ushering in print-on-demand. Digital
photocopiers were essentially high-end laser printers with integrated
scanners. Soon, additional features such as network printing and faxing
were added to many models, known as Multi Function Machines, or just
MFMs, which were able to be attached to computer networks. Xerox worked
to turn its product into a service, providing a complete document
service to companies including supply, maintenance, configuration, and
user support.
To reinforce this image, in 1994 the company introduced a
corporate signature, "The Document Company", above its main logo and
introduced a red digital X. The digital X symbolized the transition of
documents between the paper and digital worlds.
In April 1999 Allaire was succeeded by Richard Thoman, who had been brought in from IBM in 1997 as president. The first "outsider" to head Xerox, Thoman resigned in 2000.
2000s
After Thoman's resignation Allaire again resumed the position of CEO and served until the appointment of Anne M. Mulcahy, another long-term Xerox executive.
Xerox's turnaround was largely led by Mulcahy, who was appointed
president in May 2000, CEO in August 2001 and chairman in January 2002.
She launched an aggressive turnaround plan that returned Xerox to
full-year profitability by the end of 2002, along with decreasing debt,
increasing cash, and continuing to invest in research and development.
In 2000, Xerox acquired Tektronix color printing and imaging division in Wilsonville, Oregon, for US$925 million. This led to the current Xerox Phaser line of products as well as Xerox solid ink printing technology.
In September 2004, Xerox celebrated the 45th anniversary of the
Xerox 914. More than 200,000 units were made around the world between
1959 and 1976, the year production of the 914 was stopped. Today, the
914 is part of American history as an artifact in the Smithsonian Institution.
In November 2006, Xerox completed the acquisition of XMPie.
XMPie, a provider of software for cross-media, variable data one-to-one
marketing,
was the first acquisition of Xerox to remain independent entity, as a
Xerox company and not a division, and to this day is led by its original
founder Jacob Aizikowitz.
In October 2008, Xerox Canada Ltd. was named one of Greater Toronto's Top Employers by Mediacorp Canada Inc., which was announced by the Toronto Star newspaper.
On May 21, 2009, it was announced that Ursula Burns would succeed Anne Mulcahy as CEO of Xerox. On July 1, 2009, Burns became the first African American woman to head a company the size of Xerox.
On September 28, 2009, Xerox announced the intended acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services, a services and outsourcing
company, for $6.4 Billion. The acquisition was completed in February
2010. Xerox said it paid 4.935 Xerox shares and $18.60 cash for each
share of ACS, totaling $6.4 billion, or $63.11 a share for the company.
2010s
In May 2011, Xerox acquired NewField IT for an undisclosed sum.
NewField IT developed the Asset DB toolset which is widely used across
the managed print services (MPS) market along with MPS market-leading
consulting and software services delivering a large impact for this
relatively small acquisition.
In December 2013, Xerox sold their Wilsonville, Oregon solid ink product design, engineering and chemistry group and related assets previously acquired from Tektronix to 3D Systems for $32.5 million in cash.
In December 2014, Xerox sold the IT Outsourcing business it had acquired in 2009 from Affiliated Computer Services to Atos for $1.05 billion. This move was taken due to the relatively slow growth of this business relative to some other Xerox units.
In January 2016, Xerox—reportedly under pressure from activist shareholder Carl Icahn—announced that by the end of the year it would spin off its business services unit, largely made up of Affiliated Computer Services, into its own publicly traded company.
The name and management of the new company had not been determined at
the time of the announcement. Icahn will appoint three members of the
new company's board of directors, and he will choose a person to advise its search for a CEO.
In June, the company announced that the document management business
would retain the name Xerox and the new business services company would
be named Conduent. It also announced that Ashok Vemuri
will serve as Conduent's CEO and that Icahn will control three seats on
the new company's board. It continues to seek a CEO for Xerox; in May,
Burns announced her intention to step down as CEO but continue as
chairman of the document management business. In June 2016 the company announced that Jeff Jacobson will become the new CEO following the completion of the company's planned separation. This became effective in January 2017.
On January 31, 2018, Xerox announced that Fujifilm
had agreed to acquire a 50.1% controlling stake in the company for
US$6.1 billion, which was to be combined into their existing joint
venture Fuji Xerox (having a value of $18 billion post-acquisition).
On May 1, 2018, it was announced that Chairman Robert Keegan and
CEO Jeff Jacobson and four other directors would resign as part of a
deal with investors Carl Icahn
and Darwin Deason, who had mounted a proxy fight to oppose the Fujifilm
deal. On May 4, Xerox backed away from the deal after stipulations
about ceasing litigation were not met. Icahn and Deason responded with an open letter to shareholders blaming the board and management.
On May 13 a new deal was reached that additionally cancelled the Fujifilm transaction.
On November 5, 2019, it was reported by The Wall Street Journal that Xerox was contemplating the acquisition of personal computer manufacturer HP Inc.
Digital printing
The laser printer was invented in 1969 by Xerox researcher Gary Starkweather
by modifying a Xerox 7000 copier. Xerox management was afraid the
product version of Starkweather's invention, which became the 9700,
would negatively impact their copier business so the innovation sat in
limbo until IBM launched the 3800 laser printer in 1976.
The first commercial non-impact printer was the Xerox 1200, introduced in 1973, based on the 3600 copier. It had an optical character generator designed by optical engineer Phil Chen.
In 1977, following IBM's laser printer introduction, the Xerox 9700 was introduced. Laser printing eventually became a multibillion-dollar business for Xerox.
In the late 1970s Xerox introduced the "Xerox 350 color slide
system" This product allowed the customer to create digital word and
graphic 35mm slides. Many of the concepts used in today's "Photo Shop"
programs were pioneered with this technology.
In 1980, Xerox announced the forward looking 5700 laser printing
system, a much smaller version of their 9700, but with revolutionary
touch screen capabilities and multiple media input (word processing
disks, IBM magcards, etc.) and printer 'finishing' options. This product
was allegedly never intended to make the commercial markets due to its
development cost, but rather to show the innovation of Xerox. It did
take off with many customers, but was soon replaced with its still
smaller and lower cost 2700 Distributed Electronic Printer offering in 1982.
Palo Alto Research Center
The Xerox Alto workstation was developed at Xerox PARC.
In 1970, under company president C. Peter McColough,
Xerox opened the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, known as Xerox PARC.
The facility developed many modern computing technologies such as the graphical user interface (GUI), laser printing, WYSIWYG text editors and Ethernet. From these inventions, Xerox PARC created the Xerox Alto in 1973, a small minicomputer similar to a modern workstation or personal computer.
This machine can be considered the first true Personal Computer, given
its versatile combination of a cathode-ray-type screen, mouse-type
pointing device, and a QWERTY-type alphanumeric keyboard. But the Alto
was never commercially sold, as Xerox itself could not see the sales
potential of it. It was, however, installed in Xerox's own offices,
worldwide and those of the US Government and military, who could see the
potential. Within these sites the individual workstations were
connected together by Xerox's own unique LAN, The Ethernet. Data was
sent around this system of heavy, yellow, low loss coaxial cable using
the packet data system. In addition, PARC also developed one of the
earliest internetworking protocol suites, the PARC Universal Packet (PUP).
In 1979, Steve Jobs made a deal with Xerox's venture capital
division: He would let them invest $1 million in exchange for a look at
the technology they were working on. Jobs and the others saw the
commercial potential of the WIMP (Window, Icon, Menu, and Pointing device) system and redirected development of the Apple Lisa
to incorporate these technologies. Jobs is quoted as saying, "They just
had no idea what they had." In 1980, Jobs invited several key PARC
researchers to join his company so that they could fully develop and
implement their ideas.
In 1981, Xerox released a system similar to the Alto, the Xerox Star.
It was the first commercial system to incorporate technologies that
have subsequently become commonplace in personal computers, such as a
bitmapped display, window-based GUI, mouse, Ethernet networking, file servers, print servers and e-mail. The Xerox Star and its successor the Xerox Daybreak,
despite their technological breakthroughs, did not sell well due to its
high price, costing $16,000 per unit. A typical Xerox Star-based
office, complete with network and printers, would have cost $100,000.
In the mid-1980s, Apple considered buying Xerox; however, a deal was never reached.
Apple instead bought rights to the Alto GUI and adapted it into a more
affordable personal computer, aimed towards the business and education
markets. The Apple Macintosh was released in 1984, and was the first personal computer to popularize the GUI and mouse among the public.
In 2002, PARC was spun off into an independent wholly owned subsidiary of Xerox.
Products and services
Xerox
manufactures and sells a wide variety of office equipment including
scanners, printers, and multifunction systems that scan, print, copy,
email and fax. These model families include WorkCentre, Phaser, and
ColorQube.
For the graphic communications and commercial print industries, the
Xerox product portfolio includes high-volume, digital printing presses,
production printers, and wide format printers that use xerographic and
inkjet printing technologies. Products include the iGen, Nuvera,
DocuPrint, and Impika series, as well as the Trivor, iPrint, and Rialto
(inkjet) machines.
Corporate structure
Xerox logo 1968–2008, designed by Chermayeff & Geismar
Although Xerox is a global brand, it maintains a joint venture, Fuji Xerox, with Japanese photographic firm Fuji Photo Film Co. to develop, produce and sell in the Asia-Pacific region. Fuji Photo Film Co. is currently the majority stakeholder, with 75% of the shareholding.
Xerox India,
formerly Modi Xerox, is Xerox's Indian subsidiary derived from a joint
venture formed between Dr. Bhupendra Kumar Modi and Rank Xerox in 1983.
Xerox obtained a majority stake in 1999 and aims to buy out the
remaining shareholders.
NewField IT is a wholly owned subsidiary of Xerox that implements and supports third party software for MPS providers.
Xerox now sponsors the Factory Ducati Team in the World Superbike Championship, under the name of the "Xerox Ducati".
Rank Xerox
Rank Xerox logo used in 1980s
The European company Rank Xerox,
later extended to Asia and Africa, has been fully owned by Xerox
Corporation since 1997. The Rank Xerox name was discontinued following
the buyout, and the Rank Xerox Research Centre was renamed to the Xerox
Research Centre Europe. International Internet Company NAVER Acquired
Xerox Research Centre Europe in June 2017.
Accounting irregularities
On
May 31, 2001, Xerox Corporation announced that its auditors, KPMG LLP,
had certified Xerox's financial statements for the three years ended
December 31, 2000. And the financials included some restatements.
On March 31, 2002, Xerox restated its financials which reflected the
reallocation of equipment sales revenue of more than $2 billion. On April 11, 2002, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint against Xerox.
The complaint alleged Xerox deceived the public between 1997 and 2000
by employing several "accounting maneuvers," the most significant of
which was a change in which Xerox recorded revenue from copy machine
leases – recognizing a "sale" when a lease contract was signed, instead
of recognizing revenue over the entire length of the contract. At issue
was when the revenue was recognized, not the validity of the revenue.
Xerox's restatement only changed what year the revenue was recognized.
On December 20, 2002, Xerox Corporation reported that it had discovered
an error in the calculation of its non-cash interest expense related to a
debt instrument and associated interest rate swap agreements, resulted
in after-tax understatement of interest expense of approximately $5
million to $6 million or less than 1 cent per share in each of the four
quarters of 2001 and for the first three quarters of 2002.
In response to the SEC's
complaint, Xerox Corporation neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing. It
agreed to pay a $10 million penalty and to restate its financial
results for the years 1997 through 2000. On June 5, 2003, six Xerox
senior executives accused of securities fraud settled their issues with
the SEC and neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing. They agreed to pay
$22 million in penalties, disgorgement, and interest. The company
received approval to settle the securities lawsuit in 2008.
On January 29, 2003, the SEC filed a complaint against Xerox's auditors, KPMG,
alleging four partners in the "Big Five" accounting firm permitted
Xerox to "cook the books" to fill a $3 billion "gap" in revenue and $1.4
billion "gap" in pre-tax earnings. In April 2005 KPMG settled with the
SEC by paying a US$22.48 million fine. Meanwhile, Xerox paid a civil penalty of $10 million. As part of the settlement KPMG neither admits nor denies wrongdoings.
During a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
Xerox began to revamp itself once more. As a symbol of this
transformation, the relative size of the word "Xerox" was increased in
proportion to "The Document Company" on the corporate signature, and the
latter was dropped altogether in September 2004, along with the digital
X. However, the digital X and "The Document Company" were still used by
Fuji Xerox until April 2008.
Character substitution bug
In 2013, German computer scientist David Kriesel discovered an error in a Xerox WorkCentre 7535 copier. The device would substitute number digits in scanned documents, even when OCR was turned off. For instance, a cost table in a scanned document had an entry of 85.40, instead of the original sum of 65.40.
After unsuccessfully trying to resolve this issue with Xerox's customer
support, he publicised his findings on his blog. Providing examples
pages that lead to the bug occurrence, it was confirmed that this bug
was reproducible on a wide variety of Xerox WorkCentre and other
high-end Xerox copiers.
The source of the error was a bug in the JBIG2
implementation, which is an image compression standard that makes use
of pattern matching to encode identical characters only once. While this
provides a high level of compression, it is susceptible to errors in
identifying similar characters.
A possible workaround was published by Kriesel, which involved
setting the image quality from "normal" to "higher" or "high". Shortly
afterwards it was found that the same fix had been suggested in the
printer manual, which mentioned the occurrence of character
substitutions in "normal mode", indicating that Xerox was aware of the
software error.
In Xerox's initial response to a growing interest by the media, the
error was described as occurring rarely and only when factory settings
had been changed.
After Kriesel provided evidence that the error was also occurring in
all three image quality modes (normal, higher and high) including the
factory defaults, Xerox corrected their statement and released a
software patch to eliminate the problem.
Despite the problem being present in some instances also in higher
quality mode, Xerox advises users that they can use this mode as an
alternative to applying the patch.
Trademark
The word xerox is used as a synonym for photocopy (both as a noun and a verb)
in many areas: for example, "I xeroxed the document and placed it on
your desk" or "Please make a xeroxed copy of the articles and hand them
out a week before the exam". Though both are common, the company does
not condone such uses of its trademark, and is particularly concerned
about the ongoing use of Xerox as a verb as this places the trademark in
danger of being declared a generic word
by the courts. The company is engaged in an ongoing advertising and
media campaign to convince the public that Xerox should not be used as a
verb.
To this end, the company has written to publications that have
used Xerox as a verb, and has also purchased print advertisements
declaring that "you cannot 'xerox' a document, but you can copy it on a
Xerox Brand copying machine". Xerox Corporation continues to protect its
trademark in most if not all trademark categories. Despite their efforts, many dictionaries continue to include the use of "xerox" as a verb, including the Oxford English Dictionary. In 2012, the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) of India
declared "xerox" a non-generic term after "almost 50 years (1963–2009)
of continued existence on the register without challenge, and with proof
of almost 44 years of use evident (1965-2009)", but as of 2015, most Indians still use it as a synonym for photocopying.
The company has also advertised its trademark concerns, in an
attempt to persuade journalists and others not to use "Xerox" as a verb.
