edited bv MARY VIRGINLA ORNA,0.S.U College of New Rochelle New Rochelle. NY 10801 ~~
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thumbnail ~ k e t c h e ~ By Any Other Name: Trademarks and "Generic" Names W. Conard Fernelius
Kent State University Kent, OH 44240
Trademarks Authors, either those who write for publication or those who prepare material for classroom use, are aware that they cannot legally copy another's material without acknowledgment, permission, or other consideration. However, many are unaware that the law also could be involved in the use of some words. These are the ones like Dry Ice, Vaseline, Xerox, and Sunoco which one frequently encounters and which are capitalized. If you read advertisements or trade literature, you will find certain words capitalized and followed by or an asterisk. With the asterisk there will be a footnote saying that the word is registered with the US. Patent Office by such and such a company. Such canitalized words are known as trademarks and are the property of the person or company that has registered them. They are used not to designate a particular compound or a general type of product hut the material prepared for sale by a particular company which owns the trademark. It is illegal for another company to offer the same or a different material it ~roducesunder the trademark of the company that registered the name. Occasionallv, a substance or product becomes better known by a tradrm;i;k than hy a sri~n;ificordescri~tive name. If the cornDan\. holdin:: the n:gistration of' a trademark does not make a-definiteeffort t o prevent others from using the trademark without acknowledgment of the ownership and lets the word become widely accepted as a synonym for the substance or general product rather than the product of the specific company, the word passes into the public domain and ceases to be the property of any one company. Be careful to capitalize Teflon, Vaseline, Orlon, Pyrex, Xerox, Frigidaire, etc. I t is not necessary to capitalize aspirin, rayon, nylon, etc., because they either have passed into the publicdomain or the originator of the name chose not to register them. If one finds need to use a trademark name and wishes t o ~ one should, as avoid getting a warning letter frvm t h owner, a minimum, capitalize thr trademark, or better y ~ fi~llow t it hv the sunersc&t ". If vou are uncertain about whether to capitalize a woid, cons& suitable reference books (1-5). Dictionaries are also helpful, but they do not list all trademarks. @
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Drug Names Since chemists are knowledgeable in the composition of materials, they are often asked what certain drugs are. Such names as methicillin, nitrocycline, altizide, paramethasone, benzodepa, and oxazepam do not give one a very clear idea of their composition. Yet these names are not trademarks. They are nouproprietary names1 (often called generic) which, after careful screening, have been approved by national and Nonproprietary names are sometimes referred to as generic names. but this is a misnomer since the term refers to a genus or class of compounds, such as barbiturate.
572
Journal of Chemical Education
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international nomenclature bodies. Nonproprietary names are constructed according to definite rules. The Need for Nonproprietary Names During the first 30 vears of this century, the introduction of new drugs was stlft'iclimtly modest that physicians and ~harmaristsrncountered no diff'irulrv in krvpinp abreast of changes. During the next 30 years, however, therewas a flood of new drugs, mostly from the laboratories of pharmaceutical manufacturers. The trademarks which had served so well earlier to identify drugs were inadequate, because they seldom gave any indication of the chemical and pharmacological relations which exist between the individual drugs. The numher of~trademarks for the same or similar drugs - - ~ ~ ~ " was confusing. Further, the manufacturer did not want to risk the loss of his trademark rights. The chemical names for many drugs were too long andUtoocomplicated to be useful. ~
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National Approval Since the early 1940's, there have been cooperative efforts leading to the selection of appropriate nonproprietary names (6). At present the program of joint cooperation with industry in the negotiation of nonproprietary names is handled by the United States Adopted Names Council sponsored by the American Medical Association, the "United States Pharmacopeia" (7), and the American Pharmaceutical Association tenresentine the "National Formularv" . (8). . The United Kingdom hai a similar organilatiun ( 9 ) for rmwratiun herween the Rritiih Pharmaco~oeia(:ommisii~m and the Medical Research Council and t'he Association of British Chemical Manufacturers. ~
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International Recommended Names The World Health Organization has a committee on nonproprietary names (6,lO) whose guiding principles are similar to those of the United States and the United Kingdom. The committee meets annually and publishes a list of proposed international nonproprietary names in the WHO Chronicle. If no objection is filed in four months, a name becomes a recommended INN. The Guiding Principles for Coining U.S. Adopted Names The General Rulei specify that nonproprlittary names are for use hv health orartitiwwrsand that they shall he hoth h e f Further, such names should reflect and easy to such characteristics and relationships as will he of value to the users. Finally, they should be free from conflict with previously existing trademarks and should he neither confusing nor misleading (11). The specific rules are the following (11): 1) Eaters. salts. chela&. and eomolexes ordinarilv . reouire . a two-word name indicate the lnartivcaa urll ns the nctlrc pmtwn. 21 'I'lw preferred order f01 t h e ndnw t d an incjr:snic cult is carionanion, e.y.. wdrum tmonide. 'l'tlr same c d c r I S prrfr.rrcd for ~
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Brief descriptions of phenomena, topics, facts,etc.. which chemical educators have found to be of interest in their teaching, are presented in a "note type'' format throughout the JOUR~AL.
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well-known salts of simple organic acids, e.g., sodium lactate, magnesium citrate, or potassium acetate. However, for most organic compounds, the pharmacologically active portion should be named first, e.g., oxacillin sodium. A name for a salt or ester should in general he derived from the name of the pharmscologieally active moiety or corresponding acid, e.g., acetic acid, sodium acetate, or ethyl acetate. Where a nonacid suffix is used, as is custamary in the penicillin series, a salt should be named without modification of the parent acid name, e.g., as in the case of oxacillin and oxacillin sodium. Names for different salts or esters of the same active moiety should differ only in the name of the inactive portion; exceptions are permissible where both parts of the salt or ester possess pharmacologie activity. A name for a quaternary ammonium substance should designate the cation and anion aoorooriatelv and seoaratelv. ,. e.e.. .. . odanium I m m i ~ l rnor , m ~ o n i n em ~ ~ h y l h r o m i d ~ . A nnme tlrr n n m q h o t t w ur mure components shcruld indicate the nmpmrlrmn by mranr 181 separntr w r d i , rhe Insr U I whah bears the suffix "-ex," e.g., bisaeodyl tannex A name for a drug containing a radioactive atom should be eonstrueted in the following pattern: tolpovidone I 131; sodium rose b e n d 1131: evanoeobalamin Co 60: ootassium bromide Br 82 (see
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Brief diicuiiions oidru): names art! given in References (7).
18,. ,121. a n d 1 1 3 ~I .k t n i l r d infor~n;rri~m is rciven in Rr4ercnces Specific Examples W i t h t h e above background, t h e derivation of s o m e of the n a m e s given in t h e introduction will become evident.
Sodium (2.6-dimethoxypheny1)-penieiuin Sodium 6 - ( 2 . 6 d i m e t h o x y b e n z a m i d o ) - 3 . 3 - d i m e t h y l - 7 . 1 . arabicyelo [3.2.01-heptane-2-ca~boxylate monohydrate
I ) A name for a substance generally should not indicate the state of hydration, the morphology, or the mode of preparation. 8) This section specifies a number of contractions for radicals and adducts. Examples are a. besylate (bess' i late) benzenesulfonak b. cypionate (sip' ee oh nate) eyelapentanepropionate c. diolamine (dye ale' a meen) diethanolamine d. esvlak (ess' i late) ethanesulfonate
[3-hydroxy-2-naphthoate] h. tosylate (toe' si late) p-taluenesulfonate 9) I t is recognized that for somepurposes, such as in labeling, in advertising, or in package inserts, the use of standard chemical symbols and abbreviations of certain radicals may he desirable, and such usage is considered acceptable; examples are Cation ammonium sodium Noneorbmylate Anion hichloride hydroxide phosphate Carboxylote Anion glueonate maleate tartrate Hydrohalide hydrobromide
Abbreuiation am Na or sod biclor drm phos glue ma1 tart HBr or hyhrom
G r o u p relationships in a n a m e should be shown by u s e of t h e syllables or stems; conversely, use of t h e s t e m f o r o t h e r t h a n t h e appropriate group should be avoided. Where conflict arises, t h e s t e m conveying the most information should be used. Specific examples:
Literature Cited "Buyen' Guide,"Chemical Week, annual, McGraw-Hill, Inc.,New York. Caner, D. E., "The Bmh of American Trademarks: Century CommunicationsU n ~ limited,lnc.,Ashland, KY,41101,Vol. 1. 1972:Vol.2, 1973. (3) Gsrdner,W..andCooka,E. I.,"ChemicalSponymsandTmde Names,"6th PA.,CRC Press, Clovelsnd, OH, 1968. (4) "TheTrademark Register of the UnitedSta~~ThhTraddmdk Repistete,WwhiiPtan, (1)
(2)
DC. 2W05, annual.
( 5 ) Zimmorman. O.T., and Lauinc.I.,"I~dustrial Re-chSoMce's
H a n d h k o f Material Trade Names: Industrial Research Service;Dove.. NH. 1946. (6) Jcrome,.l.B..andAllpssandri,M.C., J. Amer Phorm. Ass. NS5 121.90-92 (1965). (7) "The Phsrmaeopelaofthe United Statpsaf America,"18th Revision,The United States Pharmsmpeisl Convention,he., Bethexla,MD. 197O.nmt Suupl~ment,Roekville. MO, 1971.
-nwpnnn -cillin -eycline -estrmernifur-omstsulfa-thiazide
t m n r p i l i ~ r r r(henaodin~epinederivntiver) prnicdlins ~R-nm~nc,lren~c~llsn~c arid derivativer) antibiotin (tetracycline derivatives) estrogens mereurials 5-nitrofuran derivatives mostadandin derivatives " antimicrobial sulfonamides diuretics (thiazide derivatives)
(8) "National Formulary XIII," American Pharmaceutical Association, Washington,DC, 1970.
(9) Wehh,V. J..Brif.Mad.J.,5603.484-86(May 25th. 1968). (lo! "International Nonproprietary Names tor Pharmaceutical Substances-Cumulative . List No.3: 1971,Annex 1 . p ~14143. (11) "United States Adoptod Names," LO, 1974Supplement,Appendix I, pp. 93-96, (12) Wilson.C. O.,and Jones,T.E.,"American Drug index,"J. B. Lippineott Co.,Philsdelphia. 1974.
(13) "The Mereh Index,"8th Ed.,Stateheh,P.G.,et al ( E d i f f f f j , M e ~ k&CcCC Rahhhy, NJ, 1968.
(14) D d , A.. Pratt, R., Altrhule, M. D.. '"TheUnited Ststen Dlspensatory and Physicians' Pharmamlogy: 26th Ed., J. B. Lippincott Co.. Philadelphia. 1967.
Volume 59
Number 7
July 1982
573
