Timeline for Does "Ethernet" need to be capitalised?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 23, 2022 at 6:06 | comment | added | cpit | It's not accurate to say it is a trademark. It was at one point, but is no longer legally protected. In any case, as @iconoclast points out, trademark status doesn't necessitate/justify capitalization (cf. Xerox), so to say it should "technically" be capitalized is also inaccurate (and ambiguous--according to which technic?). | |
| Aug 19, 2016 at 4:07 | comment | added | iconoclast | It is not accurate to say that you must capitalize it because it is a trademark. Nor is it accurate to say you must capitalize it because it is a proper noun. There are proper nouns that are properly written with a lower case initial letter (some names with van, von, vander, della, del, and so forth), and there are trademarks that are properly written with a lower case initial letter (iPhone, iMac, iPod, iPad). It would be more accurate to say "Trademarks should be written in the way they are trademarked, and proper nouns should be written in the way the owner writes them." | |
| Mar 22, 2016 at 22:14 | comment | added | Hefewe1zen | Yes, it's a trademark/brand, which are proper nouns. | |
| Mar 22, 2016 at 21:12 | comment | added | DJClayworth | Not because it's a trademakr, but because its a proper noun. | |
| Mar 22, 2016 at 19:44 | comment | added | Hefewe1zen | In general when something is verbified, it seems to lose the capitalization. E.g. "Did you google him?" "This picture looks photoshopped." "I made a xerox of that article." Not to say that capitalizing would make the statements wrong. But I'm no expert. | |
| Mar 22, 2016 at 19:27 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | ...but I wouldn't like to say that's necessarily "because it's a trademark". The capitalized version of hoover the carpet is so rare it can't even be graphed on Google Books. | |
| Mar 22, 2016 at 19:23 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | You might want to include this chart to "prove" that the vast majority of published writing contexts do in fact reflect the "technically correct" capitalization. | |
| Mar 22, 2016 at 18:53 | history | answered | Hefewe1zen | CC BY-SA 3.0 |