use of definite articles before names of standards

[Sandro Hawke]

Some people in my working group seem to want to call our product "the
RIF" instead of just "RIF".   

As in:

   This use case illustrates a fundamental use of the RIF: to supply a
   vendor-neutral representation of rules, so that ...

           -- http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-rif-ucr-20060323/

Sometimes this sneaks past my ear, but I'm still sure it's wrong.   Try:

   This use case illustrates a fundamental use of the HTML: to supply a
   vendor-neutral representation of hypertext, so that ...

Clearly that's not right.    

Is there a simple and clear reference I can point to for this?  I seem
to remember we've talked about this before, but I can't find the
reference.

Thanks.

    -- Sandro