Trademark infringements

Subject: Trademark infringements
From: geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 1997 10:03:54 -0500

On the issue of trademarks, I had written that <<So using a
product name as a noun isn't strictly legal, but it's
accepted practice.>>

Jane Bergen gently took me to task for imprecision. <<Beg
to differ, Geoff. It's not standard practice at all. It's
wrong to say, "Hand me a Kleenex, I need to wipe my Oreo
off my Xeroxed copy.">>

<caveat> I'm not a lawyer and don't play one on TV. That
being said:

I should have been more precise. It's certainly not
standard practice for the _owners_ of the trademarks, and
indeed, to retain trademarks, they must not do so. It _is_
standard practice in fiction, and in most nonfiction works
by people who don't own the trademarks. Again, consult any
computer magazine and you'll see what I mean. In fact, the
standard practice seems to be (e.g., my MS Word manual) to
state on the copyright page that "A, B and C are the
trademarks of X, Y and Z" and to ignore the issue again
throughout the rest of the book. And since nobody except a
writer or editor ever reads the copyright page...

<<Pick up any Writer's Digest magazine and you can see ads
from companies and at least one organization asking you to
refrain from using product names as nouns.>>

As noted by others, _they're_ required to do this to
protect their trademarks. _We're_ not required to do
anything of the sort, other than to acknowledge that the
word is someone else's property. And, if someone is
persistent enough to send us a lawyer's letter, then it's
up to us to determine whether or not to comply. But don't
forget, unless we're trying to steal the trademark, the
lawyer's letter is generally to document that they're
actively trying to protect their trademark, not to announce
a lawsuit.

A clarification: I'm _not_ saying we should do something
illegal simply because we can. I _am_ saying that using
someone else's trademark as a noun is _not_ illegal unless
we're trying to steal the name or dilute the trademark.

<<If we, as writers, do not protect the integrity of brand
names, who will?>>

While I agree with the sentiment, it's annoying to me, as a
reader, to encounter "Velcro-brand fastener" when I've
never heard this phrase in daily speech; everyone I know
simply says "Velcro". It's also unrealistic to use brand
names solely as adjectives, since we're supposed to use
language that's familiar to our readers. Jane used the
examples of Kleenex, Oreo, and Xerox, but nonetheless,
these are used incorrectly everywhere and everywhen.
Although each company no doubt would prefer it to be
otherwise, they've long since lost the battle to keep these
trademarks out of the public domain.

A second big clarification: There's a very big difference
between using the words generically and using the word in
the context of your own product. I could ask someone to
hand me a kleenex or produce my own brand of facial tissue,
but I couldn't call my brand "Kleenex tissue"; I can xerox
a few photocopies, but couldn't call my own brand of
photocopier a "xerox machine"; and I could make chocolatey
cookies with white goo in the middle, but couldn't call
them "oreos".

If I appear to be saying that it's OK to perpetuate a wrong
practice simply because everyone else does it, that's not
my point. We must certainly respect the legal niceties, but
also respect the fact that our readers aren't lawyers and
will refuse to read text written on behalf of lawyers.
That's the real issue here.

--Geoff Hart @8^{)} geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.

TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot- Send commands
to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/ or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html


Previous by Author: What to call us?
Next by Author: Summary: Truetype fonts on imagesetters
Previous by Thread: Natural Language Query for WinHelp (PR)
Next by Thread: Re: Trademark infringements


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads