At 09:27 AM 12/30/97 -0800, you wrote:
>I respectfully disagree, but to each his own. I know from personal
>experience that some companies get hot under the collar if you
>leave off that (r).
----
The symbol ® universally means "registered trademark" or "registered
service mark", and irrespective of whether owners of intellectual property
get hot under the collar, a casual user is not required to use the ® when
writing about a product. The analogy of a TV news announce speaking of
SELDANE as a registered trademark of Hoechst is silly; similarly, we all
speak of QST and ARRL, yet reference to the January 1998 issue of QST shows
that neither the letters, the logo or the ARRL logo are claimed as
registered trademarks by the ARRL and perhaps they are not.
Trademarks are protected by common law in English law countries (including
the United States and Canada) and distinguish the products upon which they
are placed from the products of another party. The registration process,
in the United States, simply grants jurisdiction to federal courts to try
cases of infringement, and the ® symbol simply is legal notice by the owner
of the intellectual property that its rights are protected.
--
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/towertalkfaq.html
Submissions: towertalk@contesting.com
Administrative requests: towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: owner-towertalk@contesting.com
Search: http://www.contesting.com/km9p/search
|