Marking First Occurrences of a Trademarked Term

[Ken S]

Our legal department would like us to mark the first occurrence (but only the first occurrence) of each trademarked term with a TM or (R) symbol in our printed documentation. Does anyone know of a way to do this automatically in Flare?

[GregStenhouse]

That would be a nice feature. Be sure to log an enhancement request with Madcap. The only thing that comes close is the glossary option to convert the first term in every topic. I guess you could provide copyright text in that glossary popup (converted to footnote text for printed), but it's not really what you are asking for.

[Ken S]

Thanks Greg. I've submitted an enhancement request for this.

[DurtyMat]

our legal department just asked us to do the same thing ... must be that time of year . we found that using the Find in File seemed to speed up the process.

Example:

Have to trademark MadCap Software
Search for MadCap Software in your document
The search will generate a list of results in Results Panel 1 or 2 (depending on what you select)
The list provides every instance MadCap Software is displayed in a topic, for the most part you can select the first search result for a particular topic and simply hit the Right Arrow and then CTRL+V your way to legal freedom

[NorthEast]

That'd get the first occurence in every file, but I'm guessing in print you just want it for the first time in the whole document.

To be honest, I'd probably just stick in a paragraph somewhere (e.g. a copyright page at the start) listing any trademarks or legal gubbins like that.

[Andrew]

That'd get the first occurence in every file, but I'm guessing in print you just want it for the first time in the whole document.

To be honest, I'd probably just stick in a paragraph somewhere (e.g. a copyright page at the start) listing any trademarks or legal gubbins like that.

Yep, for print, that's what we do -- we have it on our "legalese" page, in a small section at the bottom (Blahblahblah is a registered trademark of XYZ corp, etc.).

Online help is much trickier, since we really have no idea in what order a user will see the topics, so, where possible, we've tried to use TM or (R) on the welcome page.

[DurtyMat]

Technically the trademark needs to be be on the first occurence on every topic in a help system, or at least that is how it was explained to us. since we single source and didnt feel like bothering with condtioning out the trademark simples the first time a trademark name is displayed under a heading, it received the trademark treatment.

[LTinker68]

Technically the trademark needs to be be on the first occurence on every topic in a help system, or at least that is how it was explained to us...

That's what I thought, too, but the Chicago Book of Style says it doesn't have to be referenced at all. I wasn't sure if it was referring to a company's use of its own TM or R or if it was in reference to other company's marks, but it seemed to be talking about either occurrence.

You could put on the legalese page (or welcome page in online help) the such-and-such product or program is the property of such-and-such company. That way you don't have to reference other company's marks throughout your help.

[DurtyMat]

i've been using the MSTP guide but i just signed up for the chi-town special, can you tell me where you found the copyright info so i can show it to the boss ... and possibly reduce the amount of copyright / trademark work ;D

[LTinker68]

8.162 in the 15th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. "...Although the symbols ® and ™ often accompany trademark names on product packaging and promotional material, there is no legal requirement to use these symbols, and they should be omitted wherever possible..."

[DurtyMat]

great, now everyone is all in a tizzy .... hooray!!!!

but, really, thanks for the help

[SteveS]

8.162 in the 15th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. "...Although the symbols ® and ™ often accompany trademark names on product packaging and promotional material, there is no legal requirement to use these symbols, and they should be omitted wherever possible..."

Like to see someone use that in an argument with their organisation's legal adviser

[purrplexity]

I know this was...a decade ago, but it's the same question I have. Is there a way to have only the first instance on a page show with the (R) or (TM) icon and the rest without?

[ChoccieMuffin]

I know this was...a decade ago, but it's the same question I have. Is there a way to have only the first instance on a page show with the (R) or (TM) icon and the rest without?

Just type it once?

The difficulty with help rather than docs is that you can't actually DEFINE what "first" means, because help typically isn't read in a linear manner.

[Psider]

A hack I've used for acronyms is to use two snippets, one for first use and one for every other use. The "First Use" one is the full text and the second one is the abbreviated version. (And they keep changing their acronyms, so I have to keep updating the docs :p )

I do need to make sure I move the first use one if I update the text and include the term earlier in a topic, but it's not too hard to remember to do.