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Subject:RE: to The or not to The..... From:"Nuckols, Kenneth M" <Kenneth -dot- Nuckols -at- mybrighthouse -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 6 Sep 2005 16:14:24 -0400
In an earlier post someone pointed out that properly trademarked names
are to be used as adjectives, thus they have "the" attached to them.
That would imply, however, that you are always going to write them out
long form, including the more general noun type that the trademark name
specifies. An example would be names of cars.
Someone more recently pointed out how using the leading "the" makes
names sound a bit pretentious and snooty. Consider this example: "I
drive the Corolla automobile by Toyota." I say that's just a little too
pretentious for an econobox with wheels, if you ask me.
I would consider (my own $0.0147293856 adjusted for inflation) the acid
test to be whether or not the name of the product / service / trademark
is confusing without the leading "the." For instance, if a company
trademarked a product called "The Cake," that might need the leading
"the" included to be sure you're talking about the actual product and
not some generic baked dessert used to celebrate birthdays, weddings,
and other important events. But few people would be confused if you
referred to just a Corolla, Excel, Outlook, LaserJet, or most other
trademarked product names.
As always, just MHO offered for whatever it's worth.
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