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This is all good stuff and I agree with everything Paul says, with one
additional comment. Not all trademarks are TM. There is a difference between
TM (trademark that has been applied for) and Registered (R) trademark (for
trademarks that are registered with the US trademark and patent offices).
Realize as well that just because they are trademarked in the US doesn't
mean they are valid outside of the US. I was in Rio and saw a 7-Eleven sign
for a store selling -- clothing.
Betsy Maaks
>K,
>Here is what we do in our manuals:
>For our own trademarks, we indicate them with a superscript TM at their
>first occurrence in each chapter of a manual. Then, on our copyright page,
>we indicate, for example:
> CommSuite, Cyberjack, Echo Lake, FormFlow, PerForm,
> WinComm and WinFax are trademarks of Delrina.
>For other companies' trademarks, to quote our legal trademarks expert, "for
>major companies, such as Microsoft, Xerox, IBM, etc., a specific
>accreditation [is] given [on the copyrights page]. For example:
> Microsoft is a registered trademark and Windows is a
> trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
>For minor companies, a blanket statement [is] used. For example:
> All other product names are trademarks of their respective owners."
>I'm not sure what the difference between a major company and a minor company
>is. In practice, we indicate all the trademarks that we know appear in the
>manual and just cover, with the blanket statement, the ones we might have
>inadvertently missed.
>I hope this helps.
>Paul
>__In_response_to:____________________________
>>Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 13:38:00 -0300
>>From: K Watkins <KWATKINS -at- QUICKPEN -dot- COM>
>>Subject: Third-party trademarks
>>
>>How necessary do you consider it to acknowledge each trademark which
>appears
>>in your publications? What legal and ethical issues do you see on this
>>question? I have seen many different approaches:
>>
>> - Careful marking of each occurrence of each trademark: "...a Widget(r)
>>printer. Widget(r) is a registered trademark of Widget & Assoc."
>> - No acknowledgment at all: "Ask your local computer dealer for a Widget
>>printer or compatible."
>> - A broadly general fine-print sentence or two on the copyright page:
> "All
>>XYZ products are trademarks of XYZ Co [i.e. the company producing the
>>document]. Other brands and product names are trademarks or registered
>>trademarks of their respective holders."
>> - Marking only the "first" occurrence of each trademark, even in
>>publications like reference books and on-line hypertext which are hardly
>>ever read sequentially
>> - Identifying only some trademarks, in the text or on the copyright page -
>>usually those which either receive a lot of attention in the text or are
>>particularly well-known in the general marketplace
****************************************************************
Betsy Maaks + Frame Technology Corp.
312-266-3208 + Advanced Products
bmaaks -at- frame -dot- com + 441 W. Huron Street
+ Chicago, IL 60610
