RE: Trademark question

["Fred Ridder" <docudoc -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

No, he meant what he said, and what he said would have been
"adjective".  Trademarks are defined in intellectual property
law as any mark (specifically not limited to simple words or
phrases) which is adopted and used by a company to identify
its products, and distinguish them from products made, sold,
or provided by others. If we limit the discussion to only verbal
trademarks (and not symbols, designs, colors, sounds, etc.)
the grammatical function is clear. A trademark describes a
product--it modifies a noun, which is the classic definition of
an adjective.

As a reference, see the following page of the "All About
Trademarks" website: http://www.ggmark.com/guide.html
Item #2 on that page flatly states:
"Marks [meaning both trade marks and service marks] are
adjectives, and should be used only as such. Marks never
should be used as nouns or verbs"

It further says:
"One way to ensure that a mark is used in proper adjectival
context, is to follow each use with the generic noun for the
product identified," which is basically what Darrell said.

Apposition describes something quite different from the
correct way to use trademarks. If this were an apposition,
the trademark would have to be a noun, which all the
lawyers insist it is *not*.

Fred Ridder


>From: Yves JEAUROND <jingting -at- rogers -dot- com>
>To: "Zuercher, Darrell" <dzuerche -at- tva -dot- gov>,James MacDougall 
><jmacdougall -at- sbcglobal -dot- net>, techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>Subject: RE: Trademark question
>Date: Thu, 3 May 2007 18:32:20 -0400 (EDT)
>
>Use a noun as an adjective????
>   I think what the lawyers meant is "apposition", not "adjective".
>   But what do lawyers know about grammar? :-)
>
>   Cordially,
>
>   YJ

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