PROPER AND IMPROPER TRADEMARK USAGE Harley-Davidson logos and wordmarks—FAT BOY and 3. When we use our brands/trademarks as nouns, we risk ROAD KING, for example—are perhaps our most valuable making them generic, which means anyone can use them to assets. Our brand is who we are. It’s what we work for. describe their products. You should be able to remove our And it’s what has established Harley-Davidson as one of brands from a sentence and have it still make sense. If the the most well-known brands in the world. If we properly use sentence becomes meaningless, chances are good you’re and display our assets, we strengthen them and increase misusing our brands. their value. If we misuse our logos and trademarks, we run CORRECT: the danger of diluting and weakening them. The TWIN CAM 88B engine is counterbalanced. Earlier we gave you some rules for properly displaying our The engine is counterbalanced. logos. But there are also important rules of trademark gram- INCORRECT: mar that we should follow when using our wordmarks in any All our big twin bikes are now powered by the TWIN CAM 88. public manner, either written or electronic. We’ve All our big twin bikes are now powered by the… put together a short list of trademark “do’s” and “don’ts.” These rules, combined with a healthy dose of common 4. It is never appropriate to use a brand and/or trademark sense, will help ensure that we strengthen and protect the in the possessive form. names that identify our products and our company. CORRECT: The saddlebags on my HARLEY motorcycle are leather. 11 The ® signifies that the mark is registered in the U.S. Patent INCORRECT: and Trademark office. The ™ is used with trademarks of My HARLEY’s saddlebags are leather. the Company that are not registered. Only use the federal registration symbol ® when you are 5. Our trademarks/brands should not be used in a plural form. certain that a brand name or trademark has been registered CORRECT: with the federal government. If you are uncertain, you can They rode Harley-Davidson ROAD KING motorcycles to use the common law designation ™ next to it. the game. You do not have to place the ® or ™ on a trademark every INCORRECT: time it appears in the same marketing piece. Place it on They rode Harley-Davidson ROAD KINGs to the game. the most prominent mention of each mark, and in all titles, 6. Don’t use the ® symbol when referring to our Company. subtitles, captions and the first time it’s used within a Use it only when it’s employed as a brand to identify motor- section. As a general rule, we recommend that you use the cycles and other products or services. ® wherever possible. CORRECT: ® ® HOW TO USE OUR TRADEMARKS The Harley-Davidson Road Glide model is my favorite bagger. 1. Always include the generic name of the product that our INCORRECT: brand or trademark identifies. ® Harley-Davidson will be one hundred years old in 2003. ® CORRECT: At Harley, we never forget our past. ™ H-D® is an informal way to say Harley-Davidson Motor I am wearing a MotorClothes jacket. INCORRECT: Company. I wear MotorClothes™all the time. 7. “Harley-Davidson” is the full proper name of our brand and 2. Always use our brands and trademarks in a manner that “Harley-Davidson Motor Company” is the full proper name distinguishes them from the text in which they are situated of our corporate company. Both may be shortened to by using all capital letters, initial capital letters, bold face “Harley” or “H-D”only after it’s been used properly at the first italics or quotation marks. Never portray our wordmarks mention in the copy. without at least initial caps, even for styling purposes. Using 8. ALWAYS put a hyphen in “Harley-Davidson.” all caps eliminates the need for use of the TM or ® symbol. CORRECT: He rides a FAT BOY motorcycle. (capital letters). What’s the Willie G shirt for Daytona look like? (bold italics). It’s powered by our “Twin Cam 88B” engine. (quotation marks) INCORRECT: I added a chrome derby cover to my twin cam 88 engine.