Where / how often do I need to show trademarks and registration marks for 3rd-party software?

Question

In the application my company publishes, we refer to 3rd-party software in several places: user manual, in the application UI itself, etc.

Are we legally required to display the trademark or registration mark symbols next to the trademarked/registered names of 3rd-party software? If so, must they be displayed every time the name is mentioned, or is it sufficient to acknowledge the registration once (for example, in the application's splash screen or the introduction section of the user manual)?

For example, in the user manual we list the supported versions of Windows and SQL Server.

Answer 1

The license for each library should specify what's required. i.e. inclusion of the MPL 1.1 notice, credit in the About Box, docs, readme, etc.. Also review the license for compliance with "free for non-commercial use", if you're using it commercially. And pay particular attention if you are using any OSS source code and are making modifications/improvements to it.
Disclaimer: IANAL.

Answer 2

It will completely depend on how the software is licensed - you will need to review the license to see what it requires.

Answer 3

I am not a lawyer, but I believe that the license agreement of the third party software does not apply here (as some of the previous answers may suggest).

Just mentioning the third party software does not make you bound to its license agreement. I believe that mentioning the software would be considered fair use of the trademark, but again, I'm no lawyer.

From wikipedia:

A nonowner may also use a trademark nominatively—to refer to the actual trademarked product or its source. In addition to protecting product criticism and analysis, United States law actually encourages nominative usage by competitors in the form of comparative advertising.

Answer 4

The best source of trademark information I've been able to come up with is from the International Trademark Association. According to the FAQ:

The symbol ™ is used by companies to notify the public to a claim of rights in a trademark. A ™ is usually used in connection with an unregistered trademark and does not have any legal status. It is used to inform potential infringers that a term, slogan, logo, or other indicator is being claimed as a trademark of that company or individual.

This seems to imply that the owner of the trademark could chose to put the ™ or ® symbol on their literature (print or digital), and by doing so is asserting their rights as the trademark owner.

I don't think there's any real requirement for you to litter your text with trademark symbols because I think it's clear that there's very little ambiguity in the information you're providing.

I would also take my cues from what other organisations have done - I don't often see trademark symbols against product names that are simply mentioned or described.

Answer 5

Taking your specific need first, the Windows Trademark Guidelines describes how to correctly refer to Windows-brand products. The upshot is that you should identify the product correctly (use the correct name) and you don't need the trademark symbol if the word is capitalized and clearly distinguishable. It also mentions that you should include a trademark notice in the credits or as a footnote.

Naming the supported versions of Windows Server in the user manual is fair use. (Note that no mark needed in the previous sentence!) Adding trademark symbols is primarily for the benefit of the trademark owner to maintain the strength of their trademark, and to clearly separate the trademark from surrounding text.

Generally speaking, you are allowed to cite the name of software, but not to include that name prominently into one of your products or advertisements without written permission.

Other relevant material: The python trademarks page has a good summary of what is fair use and not, and discusses nominative use and unapproved use - although it's written specifically for Python, it seems to be generally applicable.

See also http://xml.coverpages.org/trademarks.html for why they don't use trademark and registered mark symbols on the coverpages site, and When can I use another [...] company's Trademark without consent? from the International Trademark Association.

And of course, this is not legal advice.