UNIX or Unix
dmr at alice.UUCP
dmr at alice.UUCP
Wed Mar 23 20:34:52 AEST 1988
The Chicago Style manual advocates spelling trademarks with an
initial cap. Common usage prefers not to spell words, except
acronyms or other abbreviations, in all caps. The U word is
a trademark and it is not an acronym.
Ownership of a trademark permits the owner to keep others from
using that mark in trade. It doesn't generally give the owner legal
rights over permissible English usage.
If you are offering a U product, you had better be sure that your
usage of the term (particularly in advertising and other sales
literature) complies with AT&T's requirements, because
you are using it with their permission. If you are writing
ordinary English discourse, you may treat requests from AT&T as
indications of AT&T's preference, and decide for yourself
which form you prefer, and whether AT&T's opinion of your
English matters to you. (If you are an AT&T employee, it
might well matter.)
Similarly, a footnote or other mark is, for most people, a matter of choice.
Few general or trade publications decorate trademarks.
Some do; but it would be thinkable for ACM (say)
to decide, as a matter of style, to forbid the decorations.
They would surely get letters from AT&T and others, and it would
be perfectly safe to write back saying "Thank you for your opinion."
Dennis Ritchie
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