FEATURE: Trademark protection is your responsibility

SPOTLIGHT: EditPros and clients in the news

NET NOTES: Captivating web sites

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FEATURE: Trademark protection is your responsibility—and liability

     Every day, thousands of well-intentioned business people writing letters, memos, and text for sales literature, advertisements and Web sites violate the law. Their crime: trademark infringement.
     Most of those people do so unknowingly through improper use of registered trademarks. The names of companies, brands, individual products, as well as advertising slogans, logos, labels and package designs, are eligible for trademark status. Trademark protection encompasses trade names, which identify businesses, and service marks, which identify sources of services. The EditPros name and logo design, for example, are federally registered service marks.
     People readily absorb trade names and slogans into their everyday conversation, in the process turning trademarked names into common nouns and verbs. Xerox Corp. has long waged a public information campaign to remind people that the company's name is not to be used as a synonym for the word "photocopy," and it should never be used as a verb. You can make a Xerox photocopy but you cannot "Xerox a document."
     However, our buzzword-infested society has such an obsessive affinity for trendy words and "hip" euphemisms that any clever new name becomes a target for abduction. People commandeer trademarked names in disregard of ownership. Sadly, sometimes they succeed in destroying the protected status of names. That can occur when a trademark owner fails to properly identify service marks or trademarks and is insufficiently vigilant in identifying and notifying violators.
     Our language is littered with terms that were once trademarked by private companies but lost their protected status through widespread usage as generic terms. The list of now-generic terms that once were trademarked names includes aerobics, aspirin, cellophane, cola, corn flakes, escalator, granola, hoagie, kerosene, kewpie doll, lanolin, linoleum, nylon, pacemaker, raisin bran, shredded wheat, super glue, thermos, touch-tone, trampoline, yo-yo and zipper.
     The International Trademark Association asks writers and business organizations to use generic equivalent terms whenever possible. If you must cite trademarked names or copyrighted materials, be sure to properly distinguish them by capitalizing them and, if appropriate, identifying their owners. In most cases, a trademarked name should be used as a proper adjective modifying their generic descriptions, as in "Band-Aid adhesive bandage."
     Trademark and trade name protection is not limited in duration. Protection is enforced as long as a registered name or mark is used. Numerous trademarked names are in danger of losing their protected status not only because of deliberate piracy, but also because people may not realize that they are trademarks. Here are a few such trademarked names, along with suggested generic descriptions:

• Cream of Wheat: hot cereal
• Crisco: shortening, cooking oil
• Crock-Pot: electric cooking appliance
• Cyclone fence: chain-link fence
• Day-Glo: iridescent inks, paints, pencils
• Dexedrine: appetite suppressant
• Dictaphone: dictating machine
• Dixie cup: paper cup
• Dumpster: trash bin
• Fig Newtons: fruit-filled cookies or biscuits
• Formica: laminated plastic
• Freon: fluorocarbon refrigerant
• Gore-Tex: water repellent fabric, outerwear
• Graduate Record Examination (GRE): graduate admission evaluation
• Jacuzzi: therapeutic whirlpool bath
• Jazzercise: dance exercise program
• Jell-O: gelatin dessert
• Jet Ski: personal watercraft
• Jockey shorts: men's briefs
• Kleenex: tissues, napkins
• Laundromat: self-service or coin-operated laundry
• Lava lamp: animated or novelty lamp
• Listserv: electronic mailing list software
• Little League: boys' baseball league
• Loafers: moccasin-styled shoes
• Lucite: synthetic acrylic resin
• Mace (Chemical Mace): tear gas and pepper spray weapons
• Masonite: hardboard products
• Mercurochrome: antiseptic medication
• Muzak: background music
• Mylar: polyester film
• Naugahyde: artificial leather
• Nicad: nickel cadmium batteries
• Novocain: procaine hydrochloride anesthetic
• Pendaflex: file folders, guides
• Ping-Pong: table tennis
• Quonset hut: prefabricated building
• Realtor: real estate agent
• Rolodex: index card file
• Saran wrap: clear plastic wrap
• Scotch tape: adhesive plastic tape
• Seeing Eye dog: guide dog
• Sheetrock: gypsum wall board
• Spam: canned spiced pork products
• Tabasco: hot pepper sauce
• Thermos: temperature-retaining container
• Ultrasuede: fabric
• Varathane: decorative and protective coatings
• Vaseline: petroleum jelly, lip balm, skin lotion
• Velcro: hook-and-loop cloth fastening tape
• Weed Eater: lawn trimmer
• Weedwacker: weed and grass trimmer
• Wiffle: plastic bails and bats
• Windbreaker: wind-resistant jacket
• Windsurfer: sailboat
• Xerox: photocopy

     Do not use a trademarked name in possessive form. Instead of saying "Teflon's best advantage is the reduced need for cooking oil," say "The best advantage of the Teflon coating is the reduced need for cooking oil."
     To protect your company's federally registered trademarks, be sure to identify them with the ® symbol. Sprinkling registration marks throughout a document is unnecessary; placement of one ® symbol alongside the first or most prominent appearance of the trademarked name is sufficient. Lawyers specializing in trademark protection also advise inclusion of a disclaimer phrase: "Registered U.S. Patent and Trademark Office," which may be abbreviated "Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Office." That notice should be used in advertising and on packaging.
     On an Apple Macintosh computer, you can generate the ® symbol by typing "option-R." On an IBM-compatible computer, type "alt-control-R". To insert the symbol in a Web page using HTML, type "& # 174 ;" (without the quotation marks or spaces).
     Use the "TM" or "SM" symbol for a trademark or service mark that isn't federally registered or is registered only within a state. You may not use ® unless your mark is federally registered.
     On an Apple Macintosh computer, you can generate the ^TM symbol by typing "option-2." On an IBM-compatible computer, type "alt-0153." To insert the symbol in a Web page using HTML, type "TM" and surround it with "sup" and "/sup" tags inside angle brackets (to create superscript). For the ^"SM" symbol, type "SM" normally, then convert the characters into superscript (consult your software instructions).
     If you mention another company's trademark in editorial text, you must capitalize it properly but you are not obligated to use the trademark symbol within the text unless required by a specific contract. However, in advertising materials make sure to include proper trademark attribution in a disclaimer section at the end of the document—for example, "Rice Chex is a registered trademark of General Mills Inc." As an added safeguard, include a generic umbrella statement: "All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners."
     You can download a list of more than 3,000 federally registered trademarks and service marks at the International Trademark Association's Web site.

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SPOTLIGHT: EditPros and clients in the news

EditPros offering brush-up training sessions for employees of Northern California businesses—with a special INTRODUCTORY DISCOUNT!
     EditPros partners Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March are introducing a trio of "Brush-up" training sessions designed for employees of Northern California business organizations.
     The class sessions are intended for people throughout your organization who rely on and initiate written communication—members of your clerical staff, accounting and payroll departments, inventory and shipping operations, the sales and marketing team, supervisors and managers, production workers and estimators, and others. The classes provide a foundation on which your company's employees can regain and bolster confidence in their language skills, improve the quality of their writing, and avoid embarrassment resulting from errors in composition.
     Participants in the "Brush-up" sessions will learn how to avoid common, costly errors that can cause misunderstandings. They'll also learn techniques of crisp, concise writing and sentence structure strategies that they can use to communicate more clearly and persuasively.
     The three "Brush-up" sessions are:

• Business Writing Brush-up;
• English Grammar Brush-up; and
• Business Editing Brush-up.

     The Business Writing Brush-up session includes discussion of paragraph structure; informative and persuasive writing styles; effective memo composition; proper use of active and passive voice; metaphors and similes; techniques to create emphasis and strength; jargon and colloquialisms; misused and misunderstood words and phrases; gender neutrality; and other topics.
     The English Grammar Brush-up session covers essential information about the parts of speech; subject-verb and pronoun agreement; problems with modifiers; achieving unity through parallel construction; transitional techniques to help develop persuasive arguments; pretentious and bloated language; punctuation problems; and other common grammatical and structural difficulties.
     The Business Editing Brush-up session gives participants a foundation in techniques to analyze, refine and improve writing—their own as well as drafts prepared by colleagues. They'll learn to identify redundant and superfluous language; to recognize flaws in reasoning and logic, including inductive and deductive reasoning and syllogisms; and to recast reprimanding language with a more diplomatic tone. We'll even discuss tactful approaches in critiquing the writing of others.
     The three-hour sessions, which include practice exercises and numerous practical examples as well as a good measure of fun, are conducted at the work sites of employers.
     Now, about that introductory offer: Be among the first employers to put us on your calendar, and TAKE 15 PERCENT OFF our fee. This special offer applies to any organization that books any (or all) of our Brush-up sessions between now and May 1, 2001.
     For more specific information about curriculum content, fees and availabilities, send an e-mail message to marti@editpros.com or call (530) 759-2000.
     Of course, EditPros will continue to provide business writing and editing services.

Davis City Council final vote rejects technology parks from General Plan update
     The latest revolution in the roller-coaster pursuit to develop the proposed Davis Technology Campus (DTC) in Davis, Calif., has shuddered to a halt. The wild ride that began more than five years ago when PG&E Properties first proposed the DTC concept has been marked by soaring peaks of optimism, chasms of uncertainty and loop-the-loops in which the fate of the project seemed on the verge of careening out of control. But the Davis City Council's final vote on Jan. 24 to exclude DTC and two other business park proposals from the General Plan update may effectively put the DTC plan on hold until the year 2010.
     By a 4-1 vote, the City Council decided it would not designate land for any university-related research park in the city's revised General Plan, governing land use through 2010. Only Council member Susie Boyd voted against taking a 10-year time-out to stall research development.
     The council members cast their vote after listening to a succession of two-minute testimonial statements from local residents and business owners who lined up during a comment period spanning two and a half hours.
     Advocates asking the City Council to include university-related research parks in the General Plan update articulated numerous reasons for their support:

• creation of jobs for spouses of university employees and other Davis residents;
• the inadequacy of existing industrial lots;
• the potential of technology parks to generate much-needed tax revenue for the city;
• the beneficial synergies that would develop between UC Davis researchers and firms in a technology campus;
• reduction of the present high percentage of out-of-town commuting by Davis residents;
• correction of the city's housing-jobs imbalance; and
• the need for separation of agricultural biotech and other research facilities from residential and retail development.

The Davis Chamber of Commerce also endorsed the technology park concept, and specifically Davis Technology Campus.
     "Despite this disappointing setback and the conscious decision of the City Council to invalidate the advice and requests of well-informed people who have supported the DTC proposal, PG&E Properties remains unswayed in the fundamental belief in the importance of the university-related research park concept," says Jeanne Jones, general manager of PG&E Properties, which is an EditPros client. "We will have to step back and decide where to go from here."

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Net Notes: Captivating
Internet resources

U.S. Patent and Trademark office
http://www.uspto.gov/web/menu/tm.html
     If you're unsure if a name is trademarked, or who its owner is, find out through this free service of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Washington, D.C. If you find that the trademark name you seek is available, you can apply for it electronically.

FindLaw
http://www.findlaw.com
     FindLaw bills itself as the pioneer in free online legal information and services and the Web's most highly trafficked legal portal. FindLaw claims to have the most comprehensive set of legal resources on the Internet for lawyers, businesses and individuals in plain English. The business section includes information on business formation, finance, intellectual property, and numerous resources related to technology industries. FindLaw is a subsidiary of West Group, Eagan, Minn.

Biographical Dictionary
http://www.s9.com/biography/
     Retrieve brief biographical profiles of more than 28,000 notable men and women of nations throughout the world. You can search by several criteria, including birth years, death years, positions held, professions, literary and artistic works, achievements, and other keywords. A free service of s9.com.

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