Legal ramifications of use of the JavaScript trademark?

Question

It's widely known that the name "JavaScript" is trademarked by Oracle (formerly a trademark of Sun, formerly a trademark of Netscape).

However, others seem to have no problem using the JavaScript trademark. Google uses it in reference to V8, Mozilla uses it in reference to SpiderMonkey and in various other places, etc. Mozilla is the only one that seems to try to attribute the trademark to its owner (bottom of this page), although at the time of this writing it's incorrectly attributed to Sun rather than Oracle.

For a long time, Microsoft used "JScript" as the name of their ECMAScript implementation rather than "JavaScript," presumably to avoid infringing on the trademark. Recently (I'm not sure when), Microsoft appears to have switched from the "JScript" name to "JavaScript."

My understanding based on the version history is that they've written a new ECMAScript implementation and named it "JavaScript," leaving the old one named "JScript" (rather than retroactively renaming "JScript" to "JavaScript").

My question is this: Since JavaScript is trademarked, isn't it an infringement to use it in connection with the name of a product or technology (such as "Microsoft JavaScript") without permission? If so, where can I find records of agreements with Oracle/Sun/Netscape allowing third-party use of the trademark? I assume these documents would be publicly listed somewhere, but I don't know where to find them. And finally, if the trademark changes hands again, would previously-made agreements still be valid, or would they need to be re-forged with the current trademark holder?

The reason I ask is because I want to know whether I can use the word "JavaScript" in the title of a product, for example a JavaScript library, without explicit permission, and whether I need to provide a disclaimer stating that JavaScript is Oracle's trademark.

Answer 1

Trademarks are not like copyright or patents. Anyone may use them, but only for "nominative" purposes. That is to say, you may use the trademark "JavaScript" to describe something that's indeed Javascript. A "Javascript library" would mean a library that works with Oracle's Javascript.

You don't need to mention trademarks yourself. Oracle does, of course, since it's their trademark. But if you do note that Javascript is a trademark, you must make clear whose trademark it is (so you don't suggest it's yours).

Microsoft's JScript was not a real Javascript, so the "nominative use" rule didn't apply to them.