Tip of the month from PRC
April 1998

Protection Texts

Released 5 April 1998

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Tip of the month is edited by Peter Ring, PRC (Peter Ring Consultants, Denmark)
- consultants on how to write user friendly manuals

Thanks to Dick Gaskill <dickg@AG3D.COM> for most of the contents of this month's tip. The trademark text was published on the TECHWR-L on 3 March 1998.

If you have corrections, better texts or suggestions for improvements, please let me know.

In no event will PRC be liable for any lost revenue, profit, or data, or for special, indirect, consequential, incidental or punitive damages however caused and regardless of theory of liability arising out of the use of or inability to use these texts, even if PRC has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Trademark protection

In a single document, whether that document is multichapter, multifile, or not, put the TM-mark only after the first usage of a trademarked name, and put the ®-mark only after the first usage of a name that is a registered trademark. It is not legally required to put it after every instance of the name. It is not even legally required to list the name of every company that owns a product that you mention in your manual.

The law requires that you include a statement like this one:

Product Name, Product Name, Product Name, and Product Name are trademarks of <your company name>. Product Name and Product Name are registered trademarks of <your company name>. All other products or services mentioned in this document are identified by the trademarks, service marks, or product names as designated by the companies who market those products. The trademarks and registered trademarks are held by the companies producing them. Inquiries concerning such trademarks should be made directly to those companies.

The following type of statement is also ok, but not necessary:

Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, the Acrobat logo, Acrobat Capture, Acrobat Exchange, Distiller, and PageMaker are trade-marks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Apple and Macintosh are registered trademarks, and AppleScript is a trademark, of Apple Computer, Inc.

Disclaimer of warranty (software)

Warranties stated in this section are in lieu of all other warranties expressed, implied, or statutory, including without limitation, any warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Disclaimer of warranty

Except as specified in this license agreement, all express or implied representations and warranties, including any implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement, are hereby excluded. <Your company> does not warrant that the operation of the software will be uninterrupted or error-free.

Limitation of liability (software).

In no event will <Your company> be liable for any lost revenue, profit, or data, or for special, indirect, consequential, incidental or punitive damages however caused and regardless of theory of liability arising out of the use of or inability to use the software, even if <Your company> has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

WHY UPPERCASE LETTERS ?

Licence, trademark protection, etc. texts are very often printed in UPPERCASE LETTERS. I can only see one reason for that, and that's to make it visible that here is the legal blurp everybody should read -- but nobody reads!

BUT LONG UPPERCASE TEXTS ARE ALMOST UNREADABLE TO MOST PEOPLE. THE RESULT OF THAT IS THAT THEY ARE VERY RARELY READ AT ALL. AND IN THAT WAY THE WRITER GETS THE OPPOSITE RESULT OUT OF IT THAN S/HE WANTED: IT IS NOT READ.

So unless somebody comes up with a very good reason like "it's demanded by law", I will suggest that we in the future use ordinary text, - maybe bold or another typeface to make it stand out from the rest of the manual.

If you disagree with these ideas - or have other relevant points, experiences, or ideas +/-, please e-mail me !

Ideas for new "Tip of the month" subjects are VERY welcome, too!

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