Lest anyone accuse me of being anti-American, let me highlight some German stupidity. From BBC News Online: "German engineering giant Siemens has hastily abandoned plans to register the trademark "Zyklon", the same name as the Zyklon B poison gas used in Nazi extermination camps, BBC News Online has learnt. A year ago, Bosch Siemens Hausgeraete (BSH), the firm's consumer products joint venture, filed two applications with the US Patent & Trademark Office for the Zyklon name across a range of home products, including gas ovens." (emphasis mine)

Even if Siemens' marketers don't know their history, how hard is it to do a Google search before trademarking a word you think you've made up?