[css-color-4] Use of registered trademark name in a specification.

[svgeesus]

In CSS color , the section defining a98-rgb states:

a98-rgb is compatible with Adobe® RGB (1998) [AdobeRGB].

Adobe® RGB (1998) uses primaries originally derived from the SMPTE 240M standard; errors in the original conversion turned out to produce a colorspace that was useful for digital photography, so Adobe® RGB (1998) is a common wider-gamut colorspace for photographic images. The a98-rgb colorspace allows CSS to specify colors that will match colors in such images having the same RGB values.

It did so because the defining reference, Adobe®RGB(1998) Color Image Encoding. May 2005 states:

Companies who are not Adobe licensees but who claim to have technology that is compatible with
Adobe RGB (1998) ICC profile software may claim, if true, that their products are "compatible with the
Adobe RGB (1998) ICC profile" as long as nothing in the circumstances would create consumer confusion.

W3C, which is not a Company, has received notice that the above paragraphs regarding a98-rgb (which can be implemented with an ICC profile, but can also be implemented directly in code) are not in conformance with their licensing requirements and might create confusion. In particular, the use of the Adobe® term in a standard, even indirectly, is felt to be infringing.

Therefore, the above informative paragraphs, plus the normative reference, will be deleted and the a98-rgb colorspace will not discuss why it is so named or what it claims to be exactly compatible with.

This issue is being raised for transparency, and also as a point of reference for Adobe and W3C legal counsel.

[svgeesus]

From Lars Borg at Adobe

removal of all references resolves the issue.