I asked Ed Taft to see if Adobe might comment on the issue of the
PostScript trademark in Mime messages.
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To: Larry Masinter <masinter(_at_)parc(_dot_)xerox(_dot_)com>
Cc: taft(_at_)mv(_dot_)us(_dot_)adobe(_dot_)com
Subject: MIME use of trademark names 'gif' and 'postscript'
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 29 Jan 93 10:10:19 PST."
<93Jan29(_dot_)101020pst(_dot_)99278(_at_)poplar(_dot_)parc(_dot_)xerox(_dot_)com>
Date: Wed, 3 Feb 1993 16:15:21 -0800
From: Ed Taft <taft(_at_)mv(_dot_)us(_dot_)adobe(_dot_)com>
Larry:
I haven't yet gotten any official answer to your question from our
legal department. However, I have discussed this with several other
people, all of whose opinions agree with mine. So this answer is still
unofficial, but I think it is pretty safe.
Adobe retains proprietary rights to the PostScript trademark for the
purpose of identifying products, but we impose no restrictions on use
of the PostScript language itself. As I understand it, the MIME
proposal is to use the name PostScript only to identify content as
being written in the PostScript language, and not to identify
products.
The MIME specification should, however, contain a statement that
PostScript is a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
Also, I am passing along a technical suggestion. Perhaps Content-Type
should distinguish between PostScript Level 1 and Level 2.
Regards,
Ed