KLOTZ%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA (07/21/84)
From: "Leigh L. Klotz" <KLOTZ%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA> Why are people always saying Apple is a trademark of Apple. in their messages? Who cares? Let Apple police their own copyright protection; I doubt that mail to INFO-APPLE will be dredged up in court one day as an example of how Apple has passed into common usage as meaning computer. Do you see little TM's or R-circles in magazine articles every time Apple is mentioned? No. You see them in Apple ads and in other people's ads to whom Apple's legal department has written and told to say it. The fervent Unix people are always writing little TM notices in their messages because they want to protect the Unix trademark, lest, heaven forbid, people be able to market anything useless operating system and call it Unix. Other people picked it up from the Unix people -- some of whom I bet don't even know why they do it. So I say let's call off the trademark notices at the ends of messages. They're boring. It's not up to us consumers to do Apple and other companies this service at the expense of having more junk than already exists in our mail files.
MLY.G.POGO%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA (07/27/84)
My understanding is that the notification of trademark rights applies only when a logo is used, not when the name itself is used. In other words, the design and appearance is an integral part of the trademark. If this is true (and hasn't changed since I was taught it), then putting TMs et al in messages may conceivably do more harm than good, though that's not really likely; on the other hand, I agree that it is an unnecessary distraction. ...Bob -------