Appendix 1-B. Trademarks

Introduction

A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, or design or a combination of words, phrases, symbols, or designs that identifies and distinguishes the source of goods or services of one party from those of others. Companies, software, and other names can be trademarked.

Trademarks must be aggressively protected by the owner to keep them from falling into the public domain and the owner losing the protection of the mark. This means that if the owner fails to protect the mark and allows it to be used in unauthorized ways or in ways that may cause it to cease being identified in the mind of the public solely with the goods and services of the owner, the protection may be lost. This is because the trademark is based upon identification of the mark with a particular source. When it comes to intellectual property law, in general, and trademark law, in particular, you are advised to observe the trademark protection when using a name or mark that is registered or claimed by another party.

Trademarks registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are noted with an ®. Trademarks that haven't been registered are noted with the symbol ™. AHRQ publications use the trademark symbols on first mention in each chapter and in major headings.

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Common Trademarks: Correct Use

Access® Acrobat® Reader® Adobe® Adobe® Acrobat® ActiveSync® ActiveX® Apple® CAHPS® CERTs (only the logo gets ™) CHIRI™ Excel® Firefox® Flash® Google™ healthfinder® HCAHPS® HEDIS® IBM® Intel® iPod® iTunes® Java™, JavaScript™ JAWS® LISTSERV® Macromedia® Macintosh®, Mac® Microsoft®

Mozilla® National Guideline Clearinghouse™ National Quality Measures  Clearinghouse™   Netscape®, Netscape Navigator® ORYX™ *Palm® PalmPilot™, Treo™, Tungsten™, Zire™, HotSync® Pentium® PKZIP® PostScript® PowerPoint® QuickTime® Real®, RealAudio®, RealPlayer®, RealVideo® Safari™ SAS® SPSS® Stata® Sun™ T-Mobile® TrueType® Windows® Windows NT® Windows® 95, Windows® 98 Windows® 2000, Windows® XP Windows Media® Player WinZip® WordPerfect®

The National Library of Medicine® has trademarked its databases and terms (such as MEDLINE®, MEDLINEplus®, MEDLARS®, MeSH®, PubMed®). For a complete list, go to: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/trademarks.html.

Not trademarked

HP
Internet Explorer
NGC (the acronym is not trademarked but National Guideline Clearinghouse™ is)
NQMC (the acronym is not trademarked but National Quality Measures Clearinghouse™ is)
PDF (portable document format)
Word

HTML Codes for Trademark Symbols

® = Registered trademark or service mark: ®
™ = Trademark ownership claimed: ™

Trademark Information Links

Patent and Trademark Office: http://www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm
Adobe®: http://www.adobe.com/misc/pdfs/USGenExtTMdb110807.pdf [PDF Help]
Apple®: http://www.apple.com/legal/trademark/appletmlist.html
Dell™: http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/policy/en/policy?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=gen&~section=007
Google™: http://www.google.com/permissions/guidelines.html
HP: http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/trademarks/?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN
IBM®: http://www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml
Intel®: http://www.intel.com/intel/legal/tmnouns2.htm
Microsoft®: http://www.microsoft.com/library/toolbar/3.0/trademarks/en-us.mspx
Mozilla®: http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/trademarks/policy.html
Palm™: http://www.palm.com/us/company/trademark.html
Real®: http://www.realnetworks.com/company/logos/policy.html
Sun™: http://www.sun.com/suntrademarks/

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