Indication of Trademarks in IETF Documents Scott Bradner

Problem RFC 3667 says "IETF and RFC Editor documents must not contain any mention of specific IPR.” sometimes a trademark (or service mark) owner wants to indicate in their own ID that a term is a trademark (or service mark)

Proposal let an ID (RFC) author indicate marks with: registered trade or service mark: (R) unregistered trademark: (TM) unregistered service mark: (SM) optional -- NOT required do not include “foo is a X-mark of bar” in ID can file a disclosure with the IETF if wanted

Reasons to Allow some authors do want to make it clear they claim a particular mark can be useful if mark generally unknown reason no “foo is a X-mark of bar” see RFC 3668 Section 11 to not mislead reader into thinking IETF takes a position on claim

Reasons Not to Allow send mixed message - indicate mark but no actual useful claim indication not legally required (unless in sales-related document) questionable legal status of ASCII representations