Because if you recall, there was a recurring character in the "Popeye" cartoon series called "Eugene, the magical Jeep"...I heard somewhere that that was where the troops got the name from. Considering the use of Disney characters in WWII military art, it would make sense that they may have had to deal with a studio to get use of commercial use "Jeep" from them.
Or jeep was simply the pronunciation for GP, or General Purpose, as noted above. Or it was an extension from a late '30s USAAF tow vehicle also called a 'jeep.' The etymology of the name is so unclear now that nobody could win any of these arguments in court. However, the Jeep trademark is probably good because it hasn't meant anything BUT a product of Willys-Overland and its successors for many years now (although I guess one could argue about jeep carriers, which didn't carry jeeps at all, and to the extent these still appear in books and in models, they might vitiate the trademark a tiny bit).
Mark Schynert
The designation GP supposedly did not mean General Purpose. 'GP' really stood for... G= 'Government' P= '80" wheel base' This was a designation originally used by Ford, see
Again - commercial use vs origination. I don't think the origin of usage is all that in doubt - you only have to look at a calendar...I'm pretty sure that the cartoon came first, and that commercial sales of the vehicle to the public came second (surplus sales excepted, and of no consequence being that they were sales of former Govt property)...but in any event, it all got sorted out and the vehicle producers got to use the name.
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