RE: Use of definite article

["Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>]

In response to Ronald Schwartz, Kevin McLauchlan wrote:
 
> I would pre-pend an article if I'm using the product name as an
> adjective - 'the CCU something-or-other'.  When referring to it by
> itself, as your management appears to prefer, no article.
> 
> BUT... our style mandates that we use our trademarked names as
> adjectives whenever practical, as an aid to preserving those
trademarks,
> so I end up using "... the Luna HSM" the majority of the time, where
HSM
> is hardware security module, and Luna is our product line... of HSMs.
> 
> All of that to say, YMMV.

The trademark issue is an important point, and I'd state it more
strongly than Kevin. If CCU and/or CosmoCall Universe are trademarked,
regularly using them as nouns is being negligent with a valuable company
asset. 

Does your company have a legal dept. or attorney on retainer? Is there
someone in marketing who's responsible for or cares about the corporate
brand, public image, etc? 

Our marketing dept. publishes a document setting forth the rules for
using corporate trademarks, logos, etc. Trademarks are always supposed
to be used as adjectives. 

I'm sure we slip up occasionally. But from a legal standpoint, slipups
are OK -- consistent misuse is not.

For each trademarked product name, there are one or more nouns approved
for use with it: ABC system, DEF application, GHI server, etc. 

"Something-or-other" doesn't seem to be listed. :-)

Richard


Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
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