imPaneled should have known why certain defendants’ counsel include an “®” next to their every reference to their clients’ products in their briefing–to prevent those trademarked names from losing their value by becoming genericized.  Thanks to Manny Pokotilow and Dan Simons for their insights as to that, and shame on imPaneled for not having recalled that earlier.

That said, if imPaneled were faced with the issue, we would at least try to convince our clients that limiting the ®’s would please most judges, whose relatively aged eyes would prefer as little clutter as possible in their reading material.