Jim said: My understanding is that all three are correct.

Yes and no, depending on what you are using it for.  This is a subject with which I am well acquainted.  The legal name recorded in the CT state offices is as shown on the attached record.  I discussed this over 3 years ago in a 25 page memo Tom Gallagher and Rick had but which I assume never made it to the board. It detailed our trademark registration problems and included these fictitious (DBA) name issues as well, many of which were quite significant. We are fixing that now.

“The American Radio Relay League, Incorporated” is the exact name which should be used on official documents and the like. In most state corporation office records it is common to “append” the Leading “The” for facilitating searching purposes.

Nothing wrong with abbreviating in informal use or in articles and such when appropriate.  We have no fictitious name or DBA filings for either ARRL by itself, or ARRL the National Association for Amateur Radio ( though I urged it be filed years ago to allow our interchangeable use). So, use of that moniker alone may not be compliant with CT law, but we do hold a trademark registration for it.  Problem is the part that says “the National Association for Amateur Radio” was disclaimed unnecessarily in the prosecution of the application and is not protected or made part of the Mark.  That was a mistake we are correcting.  Along with the wrong formal name being used on virtually all the earlier trademark applications.  That is going to cost us to correct, but we are on it.

Bob Famiglio, K3RF

Vice Director - ARRL Atlantic Division

610-359-7300

www.QRZ.com/db/K3RF

From: arrl-odv On Behalf Of James Tiemstra
Sent: Friday, April 17, 2020 12:40 PM
To: Michael Ritz <w7vo@comcast.net>; arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org
Subject: [arrl-odv:30153] Re: Use of "ARRL" question...

Mike,

My understanding is that all three are correct. "The American Radio Relay League, Incorporated" is the corporation's legal name according to the ARRL Articles of Association.  "ARRL The national association for Amateur Radio" is a registered trademark of the ARRL, although "the" ARRL still sounds better to me when used in a sentence, and the "League" is simply a shorthand reference for the ARRL that is in common usage (and one that I particularly like).

73,

Jim Tiemstra, K6JAT

Pacific Division Director

On April 17, 2020 at 9:03 AM Michael Ritz <w7vo@comcast.net> wrote:

I have a technical question that has been puzzling me for a while now. Maybe one of the grammar gurus or lawyers can answer this:

I've always considered the use of "ARRL" to be an acronym for "American Radio Relay League".  That would indicate that a sentence would use the word "the" in reference to the ARRL. For example: "The ARRL (took this action)".  What I'm seeing a lot of is: "ARRL (took this action)"  ie: "ARRL wants you to stay safe in these times"  verses "The ARRL wants you to stay safe in these times". It seems that all of the ARRL news releases I'm seeing now use the former, and not the latter. That seems somewhat odd to me.

Are we now just "ARRL" (like "IBM"), and not the "American Radio Relay League" ?  Is it still OK to refer to us as "the League", if we are really just "ARRL" now? 

73;

Mike

W7VO

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