Thank you for this information. German trademark law is very strict. You have to actually use a trademark to avoid “dilutions”, so companies will use the ® and ™ symbols as often as possible and force other companies to do the same. However, you are also not allowed to use ® for an unregistered trademark. A “dilution” would make the trademark subject for deletion and the trademark can become a generic term, especially when also listed in dictionaries. This, for example, happened with the trademarks Flex and Thermoskanne.
The 🄮 symbol was used in dictionaries and technical documents as a general copyright symbol, when it is not checked whether a trademark is registered or not. This minimizes two risks: The dictionary company does not have to check if the trademark is registered or not and there is no danger to be sued by the trademark owner.
Gesendet: Freitag, 20. September 2024 um 08:35 Uhr
Von: "Martin J. Dürst via Unicode" <[email protected]>
An: "Marius Spix" <[email protected]>
Cc: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Betreff: Re: Aw: RE: Position of the registered sign
Von: "Martin J. Dürst via Unicode" <[email protected]>
An: "Marius Spix" <[email protected]>
Cc: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Betreff: Re: Aw: RE: Position of the registered sign
Not really relevant to the present discussion, but:
On 2024-09-16 21:53, Marius Spix via Unicode wrote:
> The difference is that the circled Wz makes no difference between registered
> trademarks, unregistered trademarks and unregistered service marks.
> It was only used by German dictionaries to avoid lawsuits, because generic terms
> commonly used in colloquial language were added to the dictionary, for example:
> Föhn (hair dryer), Pritt (glue stick), Tempo (tissues), Zewa (paper towels),
> Edding (marker pen), Post-it (sticky note) or Pampers (diapers).
With respect to Föhn, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foehn_wind says:
"The German word Föhn (pronounced the same way) also means 'hairdryer',
while the word Fön is a genericized trademark today owned by AEG."
Regards, Martin.
On 2024-09-16 21:53, Marius Spix via Unicode wrote:
> The difference is that the circled Wz makes no difference between registered
> trademarks, unregistered trademarks and unregistered service marks.
> It was only used by German dictionaries to avoid lawsuits, because generic terms
> commonly used in colloquial language were added to the dictionary, for example:
> Föhn (hair dryer), Pritt (glue stick), Tempo (tissues), Zewa (paper towels),
> Edding (marker pen), Post-it (sticky note) or Pampers (diapers).
With respect to Föhn, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foehn_wind says:
"The German word Föhn (pronounced the same way) also means 'hairdryer',
while the word Fön is a genericized trademark today owned by AEG."
Regards, Martin.
