Form P68-0491b
TRADEMRK.TXT

Ada Information Clearinghouse, 1-800-AdaIC-11 (232-4211), 703/681-2466

             Ada TRADEMARK REPLACED by CERTIFICATION MARK

Prior to November 30, 1987, the name "Ada" was a registered trademark.  In the 
December 1987 issue of the Ada Information Clearinghouse Newsletter, Ms. 
Virginia Castor, then Director of the Ada Joint Program Office (AJPO), 
announced that the Department of Defense would thereafter rely on a 
certification mark instead of a trademark.

(The certification mark is a Pentagon-shaped symbol with a "Validated Ada" 
message, and can be seen on the documentation of validated Ada compilers.)

     The following is the text of the 1987 AJPO announcement.

                         From the Director, AJPO

The Ada Joint Program Office has announced that the Federal registration of 
Ada as a trademark will not be maintained after November 30, 1987.

Under the rules for trademark registrations, the owner of a Federally 
registered trademark must file an affidavit after the mark has been registered 
for five years, but before the sixth anniversary of registration in order to 
keep its Federally recognized status.  A legal representative of the AJPO 
explained at a meeting of the Ada Board on October 27, 1987, that a decision 
was made over a year ago to allow the registration to lapse.

A trademark is a word, name, symbol, or device adopted and used by a 
manufacturer or merchant to identify his goods, to distinguish them from those 
manufactured and sold by others, and to indicate the source of the goods (see 
Title 15 United States Code section 1127).  The AJPO adopted Ada as a 
trademark in 1979 and first used it on computer programs and literature 
associated with computer programs on May 8, 1979.  The primary reason for 
obtaining Federal recognition of the trademark use was to be able to police 
the use of the term Ada and assure that it was not used to describe any 
unauthorized subsets or supersets of the Ada computer programming language.  
The AJPO has freely granted licenses to use the Ada mark to persons complying 
or agreeing to comply with certain trademark guidelines.

In July of 1986, the AJPO realized that, in view of the widespread use of the 
term Ada referring to the Ada computer programming language rather than a 
specific program or manual from the AJPO or a licensee, the law provided a 
method more appropriate than a trademark for recognizing the preservation of 
the integrity of the Ada language.  The same section of the United States Code 
that defines a trademark also defines another type of mark called a 
"certification mark."  Such a mark may be used to certify "quality, accuracy, 
or other characteristics" of goods or services.

In order to be a validated Ada compiler, a compiler must pass an extensive 
suite of programs called the Ada Compiler Validation Capability (ACVC).  The 
AJPO has adopted a certification mark to show that a compiler has passed the 
ACVC and is a validated compiler or a compiler derived from a validated base 
compiler as defined in the Ada Compiler Validations Procedures and Guidelines 
(version 1.1 of which was issued in January 1987).  The certification mark may 
also be used on certain literature accompanying or documenting a validated 
compiler.  Information concerning the proper use of the certification mark was 
distributed to interested parties during the summer of 1987.

What this means to you as an individual or organization involved in the use of 
the Ada computer programming language is the following: the AJPO will not use 
Ada as a trademark after November 1987, it is now improper to indicate by use 
of the "r" in a circle trademark registration mark that Ada is still a 
registered trademark; and you should take care to use the certification mark 
only if granted validated compiler status, only while that status is current, 
and only on products authorized to bear the mark.

The AJPO and DoD will take all those actions required by the United States 
Patent and Trademark Office to ensure that the certification mark is used only 
by authorized persons and only to authorized products.  Any user of the Ada 
programming language who becones aware of an improper use of the "Validated 
Ada" certification mark should notify the AJPO immediately so that appropriate 
action may be taken.  Your cooperation in this effort is appreciated.

                          **********************

The views, opinions, and findings contained in this report are those of the 
author(s) and should not be construed as an official Agency position, policy, 
or decision, unless so designated by other official documentation.

                          **********************

                 Ada Information Clearinghouse (AdaIC)
                               P.O. Box 1866
                         Falls Church, VA  22204
    Telephone:  1-800-AdaIC-11 (1-800/232-4211) or 703/681-2466
                            Fax:  703/681-2869
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