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Subject:Re: trademarks From:"Focus on 3 things: Quality, Quality, Quality" <raven -at- USABLE -dot- ENET -dot- DEC -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 2 Apr 1993 15:36:15 EST
Trademarks: I just attended an STC meeting where the guest speaker was a
patent lawyer and gave us the scoop.
Basically: Trademark law is different in every state and in every country.
To cover yourself: Somewhere in the book, (usually on the copyright page)
list all the thingies in the book that are trademarked and to whom the trademark
belongs.
For example,
DECwindows and the Digital logo are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation
Open Software Foundation, OSF, and OSF/Motif are trademarks of the Open Software
Foundation.
PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems incorporated.
______________________
Then the first time you use the word in the book, put the Tm after it if it's
just a trademark, like "DECwindows (TM)...." or "use a PostScript(R) printer"
Also, each company might have its own additional rules. According
to the Lawyer, the list at the beginning of the book is more important
than putting the Tm or R in the text.
ALSO! Make sure that anything that's a trademarked term is used as an adjective,
not a noun. For example, officially, it's illegal to say, "This is the way
to do in on UNIX." because you're using Unix as a noun there. You're
supposed to say "This is the way you do in on Unix systems."
If the company trademark people CARE (They don't seem to at
Unix), they can sue you for something or other. The people at Xerox care
a whole lot, and they will sue you if you say "Make a xerox of this"
You gotta say "Make a xerox copy" (or better yet, a photocopy). If enough
people start using the trademark as a generic term, then the company can
lose their trademark. This happened to aspirin and refridgerator, which
were both once trademarked by specific companies.
So now you know more than you ever wanted ....and you can thank the STC...
Mary Beth Raven
Northern New England Chapter
Many thanks to Penney Smith Wilson, Senior Patent Lawyer for
Digital Equipment Corp.
