Thanks, Dario, Every Pentaxian should know that! <vbg> Besides, I'm a "trivialist", by which I mean, I know lots of useless little factoids, but not much about any particular topic. I'll file your little Pentax Name History in my "useless facts file", where it will happily remain until needed - who knows, I may end up on Jeopardy some day (do they have that in Europe? It's an American trivia game show - very popular). They may have a Pentax topic some day (Hah!) <vbg>.
cheers, frank Dario Bonazza 2 wrote: > Andre, > > As far as I know, things were more complicated tha stated by Mr. Gandy. > > Both Asahi and Zeiss "invented" the name Pentax for their own purposes, in > different times and unaware each other. Then, when Asahi Pentax cameras were > put on sale internationally, Asahi folks discovered that Carl Zeiss already > registered the Pentax trade name for some movie projectors on sale on > certain markets (South Africa, East Germany and maybe Finland). So Asahi > Pentax cameras sold in those markets were called either Asahiflex (like > older models) or Asahi Pentar for a few years. > > In that same period Western and Eastern Zeiss companies were fighting for > getting Carl Zeiss and other famous Zeiss-related brand names, but the > Pentax trade mark was of very minor interest for them, since it was never > used for renowned Zeiss equipment. > At the end, Zeiss Jena lost the suit and all Zeiss brand names (such as > Contax, Sonnar, Tessar, and so on). > > Later, when Pentax name was well established worldwide, I believe that Asahi > probably bought from VEB Pentacon (or maybe from Zeiss Oberkochen?) the > rights for using the Pentax name in those small markets too. I think it had > to be a cheap agreement, since at that time everybody "knew" that Pentax was > a Japanese camera company and not a Zeiss trade name. It is also possible > that Asahi paid nothing, since Eastern VEB Pentacon was no longer capable to > claim their old Zeiss trade marks on international markets. Just my guess > here. > > Dario Bonazza > www.aohc.it > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Andre Langevin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 11:36 PM > Subject: Pentax, a trademark bought from Zeiss??? > > > Stephen Gandy writes: > > > > <Even the "Pentax" name was originally a Zeiss Ikon VEB trademark > > until bought by Asahi. It was originally derived from "PENTaprism" > > and "contAX."> > > > > Was it really bought to Zeiss Ikon? > > > > Andre > > -- > > -- "The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
