notes on nomenclature
University of Soulh Florida Tampo 3 3 6 2 0 Chemical Abllradr Service Columbus, Ohio 4321 0
KURT LOENING ROY M. ADAMS
Genevo College ~ ~ a r Folk, e r Penn+onia
15010
Trademarks and Trade Names Many do not appreciate the differences between scientific nomenclature, on the one hand, and trademarks and trade names, on the other. The following definitions ( 1 ) are clear: Trademark. The name, symbol, figure, letter, word, or mark adopted and used by a manufacturer or merchant in order to differentiate his products from any other. A trademark is usually registered with a government agency to assure its use, exclusively, by the owner of the mark.
It should he noted that a legal right to a trademark is established through use. A legal presumption of ownerahip is secured through federal or state registration. Trade name. (1) A word or phrase used in trade whereby a business or enternrise or a oarticular class of mods is designated. but
article or substance is known to the trade.
Thus a trade name is the name under which a manufacturer or trader does business. The manufacturer's trade name is frequently applied to the manufacturer's pmducts, in which case the trade name becomes a trademark (established through use), often referred to as a house mark. A trade name, unless it has become a trademark, cannot be protected by federal registration. The right to do business under a certain name in a particular state is governed by state laws. Neither of the terms has any of the hallmarks of systematic nomenclature based on composition or structure. The first is an item of property designed to be unique to the owner and carefully guarded by For lists of trademarks see refs. (2-61. ZTrademarks are interesting from many points of view. For example see refs. (7-9). 3Trademark registered by the Cheesborough Manufacturing Company. Trademark registered by the Carhorundum Company. Trademark registered by the Union Carbide Corporation. 6Trademark registered hy the Rohm and Haas Company. Trademark registered by the Coming Glass works. 8 Derived Rom Versene", a registered trademark of the Almse Chemical company (now pa* of Ciba-Geigy). 482 /
Journal of Chemical Education
him.*.2 When a trademark is included in any document, if it is known to he registered, it should he treated as a proper noun, in which the first letter is capitalized, and followed by a circled R cited as a superscript@,preferably with a footnote saying that it is a registered trademark of a particular company. Failure to do this is very apt to result in a letter from the owner of the trademark or his renresentative advising the user of his shortcomings. This k&d of warning is a necessary legal requirement to demonstrate that the owner is adequately policing his property. Failure to do so could result in the trademark hecoming a generic word and passing into the public domain. The law of this country provides for the loss of ownership of a trademark provided that a product becomes so closely identified with a trademark that it is generally known by this name. Some names once registered as trademarks which have passed into the puhlic domain are aspirin, rayon, cellophane, thermos, and nylon. A trademark which has been vigorously policed is Va~elinem,~ the name for the Cheeshorough Manufacturing Company's petrolatum. The Xerox Company made a careful distinction between Xerox@,the registered trademark and xerography, the technique of producing photocopies in a particular way. Many chemists fail to recognize that Carhor u n d ~ m @C , ~e l l ~ s o l v e ~Plexigla~@,~ ,~ and Pyrexa7 are trademarks. There is heated discussion today about prescribing drugs by trademark (a particular company's product) or by a nonproprietary or "generic" name (the generally accepted name fur a drug of a particular composition and structure regardless of who made it). Unfortunately, the widespread use of trivial names for drugs makes it difficult for the uninitiated to differentiate between the two types of names. If care must he exercised in using a trademark as a name, names derived from a trademark should never be used. The title of a research paper such as "The Versen.ate8 Complexes" is in poor taste by every criterion one cares to apply as well as misusing a trademark. If one is interested in purchasing a commercial grade of sodium carbonate for use in making up a batch of glass, he would order soda ash. Dozens of such words are in current use. Their use is defended on the basis that they refer to particular grades of a product for commercial use. Their use is decried on the basis that they are essentially trivial rather than systematic names. Whatever one's preference in this debate, one should not he guilty of modifying a trademark or a trade name so that it gives to the unsuspecting casual reader the impression that it is a systematic name. An interesting example to appear in print recently is copper aspirinate (10). Although from the content one can't he sure what the actual compound referred to in the news item was, it appears to have been copper aspartate! Anyone who identifies a chemical substance in his writings Only by a trivial or commercial product name runs the risk of having his work lost in a systematic index. To facilitate the literature searcher, the Chemical Abstracts Index Guide identifies many commercial products with their CA Index Names. Further the CAS Registry Record for a specific substance lists trade names among the file of names for that substance and includes them in the Registry Structure File for computer searching (11). Dr. A. M. Patterson wrote about Trademark Names in
his column "Words about Words" twenty years ago (12). That column is worth consulting now. Acknowledgment One of us (W.C.F.) is greatly indebted to James E. Armstrong, Jr. for help in preparing this note.
A p p n d h In-Elrtroehemieal Nomenclaturo. Diuiion of Phyairal Chemistry: &I. Appl. Chem.. 37(41.499(1974). ',Quantities and Units in Clinical Chemistry Recommendation 1973," I W A C Commission on Quantities and Units-FCC* Committee on Standards Expert Penel on %antitie.landUnits,PureAppl C h m . 37141. 517 11974). "List of Quantifies in Clinical Chemisfry Recommendation 1973." IUPAC Commisdon on ~ u a n t i t l e send u o i t s - ~ ~ c c ' committee on standards &port panel an Q ~ titiessndUnifr,AireAppl. Chsm., 37141.547 11974) "Atomic Weights of the Elementr 197%: Commi8sion on Atomic Weights. fire Appl Chsm.. 37(41.58911974). "Nomenclature of Quinonea with lsoprenoid Side Chains:' IUPAC-RIB Commission on Biochemical Nomanclsture PurrAppl. Cham.. 3813) 439 (19741.
Provisional Nomenclature Appendices
1946. 171 Barach. A. B.. "Fsmour American Txsdemarks." Publie Aifsin Prera, WashingLon. D.C.. 1971. (81 .laeobson. S.. "Unorthodox Spelling in American T~sdomarks: Vol. 16, "Stoek~ holm Studies in English,"Almqvistand Wiksell. Stockholm. 1966. I91 Vandenbureh. E. C., Dl. "Trademark Law and Pmcedure," 2nd Ed.. Tho BobbsMerrill company. 1nc. Indianapolir. Indians. I%& 110) Chsm. En8 News, 521141.24 lApRI6.1974). Ill1 Roullott. R.J.. Jr.. and Weireerber.D. W . J . Chem. Doe., 14121, 92119741. 1121 Psttemon. A. M., Chrm. Ena. Neua. 32. ISept. 6. 19541: "Words &out Words," American Chemical Society. 1957. pp. 56-7.
Publications on Nomenclature A previous note' listed the various publications of the International Union of Pure and Applied Nomenclature which deal with nomenclature. Since that time the following have appeared. D e f i n i t i v e Recommendations "Abbreviated Nomenclature of Syntheth Polypeptides IPolymorized Amino Acids)," lIIPAC~IUBCommiaaion on Biochemid Nomsndafure. Aim A m 1 Chem. 3312-31. 437 11973). "DefiniLlue Nommelafure lo, Vilamin B-6 nnd Related Compounds." I U P A C - I n CommirriononBiochemicslNomenrlelure.Pur~Appi. Chrm.. 3112-31.44513973). "Recommendations for the Presentation of Ramen Spectra for Catsloging and Doeumentation in Permanent Data Collections" commisrinn on Malecular structure and Spectmscopy, AcreAppl. Chem.. 3611-2). 277 119731. 'T.ecommendations for Nomenclature of The.mal Analysis," commision on AnslytieslNom~nclatura.AireApp1 Chem.. 37141. 439119741. "Reeommendatiana on Nomenclature for Chromatography," Commission on Analyfi~ cslNom~nelsture.AireApp1.Chem.. 37(41.445119741. "Recommendationr on Namenclature for contamination Phenomena in Precipitation fmm Aqueous Solutions," commission on Anslytics1 Nomcneleture. Pure Appl C h m . 37141. 463(19741. "Recommendations for Nomenclaturo of Msss Spectmmetry: Cwminslon an Analyticel Nomenclature. AirrAppi. Chem 37141, 469 119741. "Manus1 of Symbols and Terminology for Phyricochemical Quenfiticr and Units:
.
mission on Anslytical Nomenclature, August 1974. No. 37. "Recommend~tionsfor Nomenclature and Spectral Presentation in Chemical meetronspoltroncopy hsulting from ~ ~ ~ by i ~t h ~~ t t~ ~icommission . .~' ' ~ an M O I ~ C U lar Structure and Spectro%opy, August 1974. No. 38. "Recommendations for the P~osentatianof NMR Data for Publicatiol in C h e m i d Journsls-B. Conuentions Relating to Spectra lrom Other Nudei." Commis~ sionon Molecular Structure and Spectroscopy, August 1974. No. 39. "Definitions, Terminology, and Symbols in Colloid and Surface themistry-Part 11. Heforogeneous Cstslysis," Commission on Colloid and Surface Chemistry, . . . .&. " s" ". od ..".~.,074
No. 40. "Nomonclatwe of Caninoids," IUPAC-IUB Comminsion on Biochemical Nomenclature, August 1974. Alpopuhliahed inAlch. Biorhpm. Biophya.. 161, iii 11971). No. 41. "Chemical Nomenclature and Formulation of Composikions of Synthetic and Natural Zeolites." Commission on Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistw and Commirrion on Colloid and surface Chemistry with lnternationa1 Minersioglcal Association. January 1975. No. 42. T.ecammrndatiana for Sien Conventions and Platting of Elecfmchemical Data." Commirsion on Elecfrosnalyfieal Namenrlsture. January 1975. No. 43. "Recommendations for Nomenclature of Lon-selective Eleetrodcr: Commirsion on Anslytical Nomenclature, January 197% No. 44. recommendations for Publicstion of papers on Molecular Absorption Spectrophatometry in Salufhn betweon 2W and 6W nm." Commission on Anslyticsl Nomane1aturc January !97%
Other ~ublicat~ons
"Enzyme Nomenclature." IUPAC-IUB, Elsevier. Amsterdam. 1973. 443 ~p
'Fernelius, W. C., hening, K., and Adams, R. M., J. CHEM. EDUC., 50 341 (1973). ZIFCC-International Federation of Clinical Chemistry.
Volume 52, Number 7. July 1975 1 483
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