The Open Group Trademarks

Trademarks are amongst the most valuable assets of the company.

Trademarks are important because they:

• identify and distinguish a product or service
• serve as an assurance of consistency of the quality of a product
• assist in advertising and promoting a service or product.

Unlike rights derived from patents and copyrights, which provide protection for only a limited number of years, Trademark rights can last forever. Trademark rights can also be lost forever.

The exclusive right granted in a Trademark is usually lost as a result of careless or improper use, usually by allowing the mark to be used as generic or descriptive words for products. All of the following were once valuable trademarks in the USA: aspirin, escalator, cellophane, zipper, shredded wheat, corn flakes and kerosene.

All became common or generic words because their owners did not use them carefully and correctly and did not prevent the improper use of them by others.

The Open Group Trademarks
A Quick Guide
Trademark Acknowledgment
Questions & Answers

The Open Group’s Trademarks

Registered Trademarks

• Motif
• OSF/1
• UNIX
• X/Open

Trademarks

• The Open Group
• IT DialTone
• The "X device"
• Open Network Computer and the Open Network Computer logo

Service Marks

• Universa

A Quick Guide

The Trademark Usage Guide is available in PDF format (PDF viewers for 18 platforms are available here). This guide describes the rules for use of The Open Group’s trademarks. It is designed to be a practical guide. Of itself, this guide does not grant permission to use any trademark.

Please note:

• It must not be used as a generic term.
• It must not be used in connection with products, unless the product is licensed to use the mark.
• There are detailed guidelines referring to the visual presentation, form and manner of use.
• In editorial or articles, but not advertising the trademarks may be used without prior permission - provided that the rules in our Trademark Usage Guide are followed.
• A Trademark whenever and wherever it appears in print must be distinguished from the surrounding text. This applies to all forms of printed media, including advertising copy, product packaging, brochures, manuals, internal memoranda, editorial, articles, correspondence, overhead projector slides and presentation materials, and to computer video screens.
• Methods of distinguishing the Trademark include printing it in CAPITALS, Italicised text, Bold faced text, Initial Capital Letters or placing the Trademark in ‘‘quotation marks’’.
• Always try to follow the Trademark with the common generic (the dictionary name) of the product:
  • UNIX is a .......
  • A UNIX system is a .......
• Trademarks should be used as adjectives, not as nouns:
  • ABC Company’s UNIX
  • ABC Company’s UNIX system
• Never use a Trademark as a verb.
• Never use a Trademark in the plural form:
  • ABC company and EFG company use the same UNIXs
  • ABC company and EFG company use the same UNIX systems
• Never use a Trademark in the possessive form:
  • UNIX’s programming interfaces.
  • The UNIX system’s programming interface specifications.
• · Refrain from hyphenating a Trademark:
  • UNIX-based
  • PC-to-UNIX
  • UNIX-like
  • UNIX system-based
  • ABCs UNIX implementation-based
  • connecting PCs to UNIX systems
• The Trademarks should never be combined to form a new word, combined with other words, be hyphenated or abbreviated:
  • UN*X
  • Xopn
• · The graphical design of the Trademarks must be strictly adhered to. The Trademarks must always be used with white space (see General Conditions below) around them and must never be superimposed on or used in association with other graphics or Trademarks.

 

Trademark Acknowledgment

An acknowledgment is required whenever a trademark of The Open Group is used.

• The correct acknowledgment is:
  Motif, OSF/1, UNIX and the "X" device are registered trademarks and IT DialTone and The Open Group are trademarks of The Open Group in the US and other countries.
• You should always mark the first or most significant occurrence of the Trademark as appropriate and must place the required attribution as a footnote. The attribution should use the ® symbol for a registered Trademark and the ä symbol for an unregistered Trademark.
• It is acceptable to use an asterisk in place of the trademark symbol where the medium used (for example, electronic mail) cannot reproduce the ® or ä symbols. However, this is not intended to authorize use of the asterisk as the norm.
• You may translate the trademark attribution to national language(s).
• The trademark attribution is important as it reminds competitors, licensees, customers and others that The Open Group claims exclusive rights in the marks.
• Blanket or generic attributions are not acceptable, such as:
  ‘‘All trademarks are the property of their respective owners’’.

• Individual trademarks may be acknowledged.

Questions & Answers

Q.
Some trademark attributions still say Novell (or even AT&T or Bell Labs), which is correct?

A.
The correct attribution is:

"UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries"

Some licenses (which date from before the merger of X/Open Company with The Open Group) still require the following attribution:

"UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Ltd."

All licenses will be updated in due course; in the meantime, The Open Group is happy for either attribution to be used.

Any other attribution is incorrect.

© 2000