How to punctuate a phrase that has words between the possessor and possession?

Question

Example: the security policy for Acme Group owned and operated computers...
Obviously I could just reword it as "the security policy for computers owned and operated by Acme Group...," but if I wanted to word it like the example would there be hyphens, and if so, where?

RobJarvis · Answer

Like this:

the security policy for Acme Group-owned and -operated computers...

Discussion:

"Acme Group" is a proper noun and thus is not hyphenated if the original is not hyphenated.
Note that "operated" gets a hyphen but the space after the "and" remains. This is because in the short list of two (owned and operated), the second "Acme Group" is implied.

I thought there was a reference to this guidance in Strunk & White's Elements of Style, but I guess not.

How to punctuate a phrase that has words between the possessor and possession?

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