5

One thing I've consistently noticed in TV commercials and other marketing materials for drugs is that the trade name for a drug, especially a prescription drug, is almost always written in all caps within text (e.g. NEXIUM):

Important Safety Information About NEXIUM

  • Symptom relief does not rule out the presence of other serious conditions. Talk with your doctor
  • Talk to your doctor about serious side effects, including:
    • Kidney problems (acute interstitial nephritis) may happen at any time during treatment with NEXIUM. Call your doctor if you have a decrease in the amount that you urinate or if you have blood in your urine
    • NEXIUM may increase your risk of getting severe diarrhea. Call your doctor right away if you have watery stool, stomach pain and fever that does not go away
    • Bone fractures if you take multiple daily doses of NEXIUM for a year or longer
    • Some people who take PPIs, including NEXIUM, develop certain types of lupus or have worsening of the lupus they already have. Call your doctor right away if you have joint pain or rash on your cheeks or arms that gets worse in the sun
    • Low vitamin B12 if you have been on NEXIUM for a long time (more than 3 years)
    • Low magnesium levels if you take NEXIUM (for 3 months or more) [truncated for brevity]

However, the wordmark and logo write the trade name with only the first letter capitalized:

Nexium logo

Why is this done? Does this reduce the risk of genericization? Is there any other legal advantage to doing this?

Note that this practice is not limited to the pharmaceutical industry. The National Association of REALTORS® similarly insists on writing REALTOR® in all caps, and requires that its members do so. Again, does this reduce the risk of genericization?

bwDraco
  • 770
  • 5
  • 21

2 Answers2

9

It is capitalized because the word NEXIUM has a conspicuous definition. In other words, they're using it in the specific way they have defined it to mean. This is to differentiate it from any other meaning it may have in some other context. Obviously with NEXIUM, it's a word they just made up and it's very unlikely that it could ever be confused with anything other than their particular drug.

But what if the drug were called PRAXIA? The word praxia might be confused with the medical term. It's also the name of a city in Romania (I just learned that while looking that word up). But PRAXIA in all caps refers specifically to their drug, and there can be no ambiguity between that and other uses of the term.

This is especially important for drugs, since they are legally required to disclose the side effects in their advertising, and you wouldn't want someone potentially confusing the name of the drug with the condition it treats.

You see this in contracts as well. When a contract provision is written in ALL CAPS, it is done to conspicuously call attention to the text, either because it is redefining an established legal term or is modifying rights you may have under the law (e.g. LIMITED WARRANTY, SEVERABILITY, BINDING ARBITRATION, etc.)

There is no established rule for this, by the way. It's mostly a matter of style. Some laws require conspicuous disclosure of certain provisions in contracts, so ALL CAPS has traditionally been used to meet that requirement.

NOTE: The term "Nexium" (not in caps) is simply the registered trademark for the drug. It simply protects their intellectual property (i.e. the name), and isn't intended to describe or define anything in a legal way.

Fun fact: Subway got sued for making "Footlong" sandwiches that were not actually 12 inches in length. They tried to argue that "Footlong" was a trademark and not intended to convey the length of their sandwiches. They settled the lawsuit, because really, that's a jackass move right there. I wonder, though... If they'd called it a FOOTLONG, would that have made a difference? ;-)

Wes Sayeed
  • 1,066
  • 8
  • 17
-2

No, this does not even appear to be a ubiquitous practice. It certainly does not reduce the risk of generalization - its probably a styling rule someone has made somewhere. Indeed if you search Google, you will find lots and lots of examples where this is not the case. (For example, look at the logo for Cialis, Plavix - the first 2 logos I could find with lower case, out of 4 I looked at in total)

davidgo
  • 3,529
  • 14
  • 25