Re: Editing instructions for core drafts.

[Bill Sommerfeld <sommerfeld%sun.com@localhost>]

On Fri, 2005-03-11 at 08:54, Ben Harris wrote:
> I
> >"ssh" is a registered trademark in the United States and/or other countries.
> 
> "RC4" is also a registered trademark in the US (registration number
> 1911168), which was mentioned in earlier drafts.  Is it worth mentioning it
> there?

Not under my understanding of (a) the IETF IPR policy with respect to
trademark notices, or (b) current trademark law.

I am not a lawyer, but, in the process of un-jamming this document, I've
learned far more than I ever wanted to know about trademarks.

Items #1 and #2 of the editing instructions are tied together.

There was a long discussion of this in the IPR-WG archives.  

The author of 3667 has asserted that the text in rfc3667 that appears to
require that authors identify all known 3rd-party trademarks does not 
actually require that.

That said, trademark registrants undermine their own trademarks by not
mentioning the registration status in the documents they originate that use
the mark.  As I understand it, the legally required notice does not require
identifying the holder of the mark, just a registration authority.

						- Bill