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Subject:Re: trademark symbols From:KnoxML1 -at- TEOMAIL -dot- JHUAPL -dot- EDU Date:Wed, 24 Apr 1996 16:27:33 EST
Roxanne Lewis asks:
#I have a question about the use of trademark and registered trademark
#symbols in scientific text. There are two schools of thought here, and the
#discussions are getting quite lively. One thinks that you only put in the
#symbol when talking about a product (Microsoft. Word) another thinks that
#you put it in whenever you see the name (Microsoft.). We have looked in the
#Government Printing Office Style Manual and it does not say anything about
#it. The GPO is our mainstay because we are contractors to NASA and must
#comply, but in this instance information from any source would help.
Roxanne,
Look on pages 28 and 58 of the 1984 GPO style manual (as far as I know that's
the latest edition). The manual calls them "trade names" not "trademarks" in
the index. It requires that trade names be capitalized, but does not require use
of the (R) or (TM) symbol (ever). I worked for 15 years as and editor for the
Government (USDA & DOD research labs) & three more for a NASA contractor. That
was the policy even in the days when I and most other USDA editors had to get
stuff through the Agriculture Department's official fire-breathing "Keeper of
GPO Style," who reviewed everything and never let *anything* go to GPO for
printing that didn't conform *exactly.*
No symbol is required. Use of the (R) or (TM) on the first appearance of the
trademark is not forbidden, but it is considered a courtesy to the owner of the
mark, not a requirement. Treating the mark as a proper noun by capitalizing it
(as is done in the list on p. 58) is perfectly adequate.
Margaret Knox
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
margaret -dot- knox -at- jhuapl -dot- edu
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