I work with a company whose name is frequently reduced to an initialism (acronym). Let's say the name is "Cool Computer Systems" (CCS). I am engaged in an ongoing, bloody battle with the marketing department, wherein they insist the following apostrophe use is correct:
Buy CCS' New Product.
Reading that line brings visions of crying 4th grade teachers and librarians to mind. I am quite certain that it should be written:
Buy CCS's New Product.
UPDATE:
The examples are in title case because the sentence is the subject line of an e-mail.
UPDATE:
Their argument is that "Systems" is plural. I say that plurality doesn't matter, because "Systems" is part of the name. The name as a whole should be handled as a singular entity, because the company is, in fact, a single, legal entity. Thus, the possessive form should be written:
The Emperor's clothes
Cool Computer Systems's clothes
CSS's clothes
Answer
According to the Guardian style guide:
The possessive in words and names ending in S normally takes an apostrophe followed by a second S (Jones's, James's), but be guided by pronunciation and use the plural apostrophe where it helps: Mephistopheles', Waters', Hedges' rather than Mephistopheles's, Waters's, Hedges's.
So I would likewise go by pronunciation write it as:
Buy CCS's New Product.
Or rewrite to avoid it the apostrophe altogether.
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