SYNNEX TRADEMARK GUIDELINES
Introduction
These guidelines provide information concerning the proper usage and protection of SYNNEX trademarks. SYNNEX Corporation’s trademarks are valuable assets. Everyone who is involved in the preparation of materials which use trademarks should become familiar with these Guidelines.
Trademarks in General
A trademark is a word, name, symbol or device, or a combination of them, adopted and used by a company to identify its products and to distinguish them from the products of others.
A service mark is a type of trademark used to identify services rather than tangible products.
A trade name is the name of a company or an abbreviation of the name under which business activity is conducted.
Some names may be used in more than one category, and in such cases it is important that users be aware of the specific category in which the name is being used. For example, SYNNEX, is the company’s trade name; SYNNEX®, on the other hand, is also a trademark for the company’s various services.
Types of Trademarks
Trademark rights in the United States arise as a result of use, not as a result of registration alone. However, to put it simply, not all trademarks are created equal. A trademark is entitled to greater or lesser protection from use by others depending on just how distinctive the trademark is of the trademark owner’s goods. That is, a “fanciful” trademark, such as XEROX for photocopiers, is a particularly distinctive trademark and is therefore entitled to substantial protection from use by others on similar or even dissimilar goods. Likewise a suggestive trademark, one that requires some imagination to draw a conclusion as to what goods it is used on, is inherently distinctive, but is not entitled to as great a scope of protection against use on different goods.
A trademark that simply describes a feature, characteristic or element of the product on which it is used, such as SCSI-NET for computer networking products or CONTACT ACTIVITY PLANNER for contact management software, is not inherently distinctive of its owner’s product and will not be entitled to trademark protection at all, absent a showing that consumers associate that term with a particular source. Finally, a “trademark” that is a generic term in the trade, such as RAID for disk arrays, can never be distinctive of one manufacturer’s goods and cannot be protected from use by others.
Trademarks generally fall into two major categories, those which have been registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (and perhaps in foreign countries as well), and those which have been used but are not registered or have not yet completed the registration process. Both types of marks are protectible, although registered trademarks provide nationwide notice of SYNNEX’s rights in the mark and stronger enforcement provisions. In the U.S., registered marks are marked with the ® symbol, while common law trademarks are marked with the ™ symbol. As of December 1, 2020, SYNNEX owns the following trademarks, which may be registered in the U.S. and in other jurisdictions:
Marks
SYNNEX® (and logo design)
BigD™
CloudSolv™
ComputerLand®
CONVERGESolv®
Enex®
FlexSource™
GOVSolv®
Hyve Solutions®
Jack of All Games®
LicenseOnline®
New Age Electronics® (and logo design)
NexCe® (and logo design)
NexConcepts® (and logo design)
PrintSolv®
TSD®
Varnex®
SERVICESolv®
STELLR®
WAVE LOGO: ®
If you have a question about whether or not SYNNEX owns a particular trademark, or a question regarding proper usage of a SYNNEX trademark, contact the Legal Department.
Proper Use of Trademarks
A company’s exclusive right to use its trademarks even if they have been registered, may be lost if the marks are not used properly. There are a number of well-known examples of names which once were trademarks but which have now fallen into such common usage that they may be used by anyone, such as ESCALATOR, ASPIRIN, and CELLOPHANE. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance that SYNNEX’s trademarks only be used in accordance with the following rules:
NEVER USE TRADEMARKS AS NOUNS; USE WITH GENERIC TERMS
Trademarks are adjectives, and should always be used with the generic term which they modify. For example:
CORRECT
NEXCONCEPTS ®
digital pens are an innovation in capturing data.
or
SYNNEX ® contract assembly services provide OEMs with a high degree of flexibility.
or
SYNNEX ® brand contract assembly services provide OEMs with a high degree of flexibility.
INCORRECT
NEXCONCEPTS ®
is an excellent product.
or
SYNNEX® is the solution for your business.
This is the most important rule of trademark usage. The appropriate generic term should immediately follow use of each SYNNEX trademark in each piece of advertising or other promotional materials. On occasion, the generic term may be omitted where the context makes it clear that a generic term is intended, such as in repetitive uses of the trademark in a single piece, but these exceptions should be made with care. Always use the mark with the generic term at the beginning of a piece and again at subsequent significant points.
DO NOT USE TRADEMARKS AS POSSESSIVES
This also follows from the principle that trademarks are adjectives:
CORRECT
The PrintSolv®
website is the best place to buy printer cartridges.
INCORRECT
PrintSolv’s®
website is the best place to buy printer cartridges.
RETAIN THE DISTINCTIVE APPEARANCE OF TRADEMARKS
Trademarks should always be presented in a distinctive fashion, such as by the use of all capital letters, italics or distinctive typeface. If a trademark is always used in a particular typeface or style, it should be so used consistently. Check with the SYNNEX Legal contact if you are unsure of how a particular trademark is to be used.
USE APPROPRIATE MARKINGS
Trademarks registered in the United States should be used with one of the following designations in the United States:
-®
-Reg. U.S. Pat. and Tm. Off.
-Registered United States Patent and Trademark Office
The ® symbol typically follows the mark as a subscript or superscript. The other two designations are generally placed at the bottom of a page as a footnote, with an asterisk next to the mark used to direct the reader’s attention to them.
Use the superscript ™ for unregistered trademarks, or on materials that will be distributed internationally if the mark is not registered in countries which use the ® symbol to indicate national registration (listed above). The appropriate marking must be used with the first or most prominent appearance of a trademark in a publication, but need not be used with each subsequent appearance, if it has been used in a way that the reader is clearly placed on notice. Use the following standards to decide when and how to mark trademarks.
a. If there are multiple uses of SYNNEX trademarks throughout a publication, an explanatory note on the cover sheet or title page of the publication in the following format will be sufficient:
“___________________ ® or ™ is a [ insert “registered” if applicable] trademark of SYNNEX Corporation.”
b. The note described above may not always be appropriate, particularly if the publication is such that portions of it may be used separately without reference to its beginning (for example, individual pages of a web site might be displayed or printed separately from the home or about page). If so, use the following principles:
i. Mark a trademark each time it appears in a table of contents, a chapter or section heading, or a picture or figure caption.
ii. Mark the trademark the first time it is used in each part of a publication which is likely to be independently referenced.
iii. If in doubt, use additional markings rather than fewer.
c. Always mark the trademark on covers of publications, in advertisements and press releases.
d. If in doubt, mark the trademark the first time it is used on each page of copy.
Use of “SYNNEX” as a Trade Name and a Trademark
SYNNEX is used to identify the company (a trade name) and SYNNEX® is a trademark to identify its product lines. Each time the name “SYNNEX” is used, the user should determine whether it is being used as a trade name or a trademark, and then conform to the following rules. Admittedly, these are some of the more difficult rules to apply. Typically, it is trade name use when SYNNEX is an actor taking some action or having some attribute (e.g., “SYNNEX offers IT supply chain services” or “SYNNEX provides outsourcing services for leading technology manufacturers and resellers.”). Conversely, it is trademark or service mark usage when SYNNEX is an adjective used as a brand name (e.g., “the SYNNEX ® distribution services are utilized by some of the world’s largest technology companies” or “the SYNNEX ® customer support network is one of the most responsive”).
a. Trade name: Normally used in normal typeface. The company’s address may appear with the trade name.
b. Use as Trademark: Where possible, distinctive logo typeface should be used, together with the appropriate superscript: ® or ™. Do not use the company’s address in conjunction with use of the name as a trademark.