[SciPy-Dev] Does Matlab need to be MATLAB(TM)...

[Jonathan Guyer]

On Jun 3, 2010, at 10:12 PM, David Goldsmith wrote:

> ...everywhere it occurs?

Our rules are obviously not your rules, but the NIST Editorial Review Board explicitly prohibits the use if (TM) and the like in NIST publications (we are discouraged from using trade names at all, unless necessary to specify the "experimental" apparatus (I'm pretty sure {s,S}ci{p,P}y's usage of "{m,M}{atlab,ATLAB}" would be considered acceptable, since {m,M}{atlab,ATLAB} compatibility is the point)). 

My understanding from when I served on the Board is that "(TM)" carries no legal weight at all (anybody can affix it to a name they "claim") and that although "(R)" does carry legal weight, it was not considered our responsibility to defend other people's trademarks. In fact, we are emphatically required to use "(R)" with NIST registered trademarks (e.g., "Standard Reference Material(R)") and banned from using it with anybody else's trademarks, registered or otherwise.


None of this should be construed as any official NIST guidance as to what *you* should do, only my understanding of what *I* am supposed to do.