Re: Trademark law for publications?

Subject: Re: Trademark law for publications?
From: Barb Philbrick <caslonsvcs -at- IBM -dot- NET>
Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1997 08:11:30 GMT

> My legal eagles (that is my Law Department experts - large
>Canadian Bank) have told us procedures writers to show the trademark symbol the first time the
>product is mentioned and to put a foot note at the end of our document
>that "Windows (trademark symbol) is a registered trademark of Microsoft
>Corp."

>Thereafter in the *same* document you can show the product without the
>trademark symbol.

What's their rationale? I notice that in magazines and other
publications, respecting trademark is the only requirement. I rarely
see trademark symbols in, for instance, _U.S. News and World Report_
or _People_ magazines, or in popular novels that mention Kleenex.

By respecting, I mean capitalizing it and using it as a noun or
adjective, never a verb (OK: the Xerox machine; Microsoft Windows is
the operating system; not OK: I'm xeroxing this message).

Why do we as technical writers carry the burden of fussing around with
trademarks when other more widely distributed publications don't? Is
it simply professional respect - we'll put notices in about your
trademarks if you'll put notices in about ours?

Curious -

Barb

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