Conference iosg::all-in-1_v30

    John,
    
    I don't think we try and flame too hard at people who don't spell
    ALL-IN-1 correctly. After all, if we did, the collective heat would
    have burned down TTB by now, and as far as I know it's still standing
    ;)
    
    People aren't stupid if they don't know that ALL-IN-1 is a Digital
    trademark. I would hate to see anyone stop using this conference if
    they felt that people here didn't want to help with problems that
    others meet with the product. Sometimes the tone of the conference gets
    a little festy, but that's due to the diversity of the people that
    contribute. 
    
    Tony

    You might be right, that we are a bit paranoid about the naming of this
    product, but it's definitely a legal fact that misuse of a product's
    name internally has caused other products to lose their right to the
    tradename.
    
    ALL-IN-1 is one of less than ten software products that make the
    corporation money, so perhaps that's why you don't see other products
    complaining about their copyirhgt so much, since it wouldn't matter
    much if we lost the right to the others.
    
    Also, ALL-IN-1 is particularly easy to spell incorrectly. There aren't
    many ways to get VMS or DATATRIEVE wrong :-) For this reason, I've
    sometimes used phrases like "spell it exactly like this, with all
    capitals" because sometimes when I've just said "like this" the noter
    has replied with a spelling like "all-in-1" (sic).
    
    I like working on ALL-IN-1, and I like working for Digital. I'd like us
    to keep making money from our right to use the ALL-IN-1 name so I can
    keep doing both of those things.
    
    Personally, I never reply to wrong spellings unless I can actually help
    the person with their query too.
    
    I often just change the titles without further comment. Now the
    conference is on my node so that I have RMS write access to the file, I
    might just change the spelling in the note without saying anything too.
    That would solve our name protection problem, but it would leave me
    open to a stream of note editing unless I could somehow educate the
    authors.
    
    It's obviously past my bedtime...
    
    Graham

    Hi,
    
    Here is one that irritates me: Local companies advertise they give
    All-in-one courses. Could it be that they mean ALL-IN-1? Or it is it
    their own OA-system? If it is ALL-IN-1 then I (as a customer) would
    never go to them as they cannot even spell the name of the product
    right, maybe they don't know what they are talking about at all!
    
    Sjaak.

>    Here is one that irritates me: ...

    One that irritates me, is that some noters abuse Digital trademarks left,
    right and centre, and then proceed to ensure they make sure they've 
    correctly spelled _competitors_ products.

    Paul.

    In my totally unqualified opinion I would have though it very unlikely
    that digital will in practice be damaged by some noters misspelling the
    trademark. In the infinitesimal chance that digital lost the trademark,
    I would doubt that it would be financially damaged - it doesn't seem to
    have done Hoover much harm!
    
    But it's not worth arguing about. When you know, it's very easy to get
    it right. The first-time noter is very unlikely to get it right. I know
    what it says in the Conference announcement, but it's easy to miss and
    easier to forget. And if the first-time noter gets it wrong then boy,
    what a welcome they soemtimes get.
     
    All I ask, like .0, is that some noters who make corrections could
    desist from doing it rudely, and making it appear like they're on some
    ego trip.
    
    Cheers
    
    Stuart

    � I know what it says in the Conference announcement, but it's easy to
    � miss and easier to forget. 
    
    It's even easier to miss if you use the DECwindows interface to Notes -
    there you don't ever see the announcement unless you choose Show/Modify
    Conference.
    
    D (who doesn't use the DECwindows interface except by accident!)

	In addition to Graham's earlier comments (and others in the past), 
there's another good reason to be extra careful about this particular product
name.  Various forms of "all in one" are springing up all over, on a variety of
different types of products.  We've all chuckled over the references to certain
"nappies" (i.e., diapers), or -- here in the States -- gift wrapping that
contains the wrap, a bow, and a card "all-in-1" package.

	But it's more serious than that.  The industry is learning that ALL-IN-1
*is*  becoming a well-known name.  And as a result, more and more bastardiza-
tions of the name are springing up, but referring to other vendors' products.
As was mentioned earlier, you wouldn't see this happening, for instance, with
VMS or DECwrite or DATATRIEVE.  It's both fortunate *and* unfortunate that our
third-largest (second-largest, based on some evaluations) software product has
such a generic name.

	For that very reason, however, we *do* need to take extra care with the
name.  And once again, apologies if that sometimes seems to become overbearing.

	F

	P.S.  Maybe we *should* have called it DECaid...   8^)