Hmm, that goes against information I gleaned from the USPTO last year while looking into registering a few marks. But, what are the other supporting requirements?

Many places in the world don't do "R"egistered marks, nor do they allow the use of common/generic words like "wood" or "apple" - you'd have to do something like "Wood Manglers" or "Apple Computer, Inc." TM law and practises vary quite a bit from country to country and it's pretty interesting (or hairy...) if you want to use a mark around the world. If you think the USPTO stuff is fun to read, check some of the info on the Industry Canada website sometime. It'll be nice sorting out all the nuances between the two when the time comes.

Hmm, imagine IBM had decided they wanted to drop the words "Business Machines" and start using only "International"

Many of the Apple marks are registered with specific designs (some are designs only and some are no doubt with the permission of previous mark holders because of closeness in market.

I'll have to look into this a lot more closely soon.

Bruno