TASER™ Guidelines

The rare and lovely sensibilities of the good folks over at TASER International, Inc have been sorely tried recently by the sloppy attribution of their trademark in articles about how their product kills people. In order to right this grievous injury, they have forwarded the following helpful tips in an email from their legal department :

TASER International Trademark Guidelines
“TASER” is a trademark of TASER International, Inc. and the trademark “TASER” should only be used as follows: TASER ™ electronic control device. Following are guidelines that must be followed in order to preserve the TASER trademark’s legal status as a trademark.

1. Use the TASER trademark in its proper form.
The TASER trademark should always appear as: TASER™ electronic control device
The letters in TASER should be block letters and always be capitalized
Do not display the mark in any unusual typeface or in any other manner that might blur its distinctiveness
The TASER trademark should only be used as an adjective to describe a generic product, e.g. “TASER ™ electronic control device.”

Ok, for brevity's sake I'm going to skip through the next few pointers like :"

Place the proper notice ™ immediately following the TASER trademark, without any space between the mark and the notice (i.e., TASER™)."

and

"For example, do not say “TASER™ holster”; but you may say, “_____holster for the TASER ™ M26 electronic control device” "

and their admonition to always use: "legible type (7 point or larger)"

and go straight to:

7. Always use the TASER trademark properly in text.
The TASER trademark indicates products and services connected with TASER International’s technology. To preserve its distinctiveness and purpose, please follow these rules when using the mark in text:
Always use the TASER trademark as an adjective, not a noun or verb.
For example, never say: “The officer shot his TASER; or, I’m going to TASER you.”

Well, you can see why they're upset - we have so been getting it all wrong.
Just look at all these recent examples of improper use of the trademark TASER™ :

-Police taser 68 year old Kelowna man for double parking
-Use of taser on children OK, police say
-Police use taser on handcuffed 9 year old girl
-Police use taser to subdue 6 year old boy
-University student tasered for non-compliance by UCLA police

So from now on , fellow bloggers, whenever you link to a headline like "Taser shocks ruled cause of death", make sure you give credit where credit is due and change that headline to conform to the proper TASER™ specifications.

After all, you don't want them TASER™ folk lying awake at night fretting, do you?