Hi Jim, All of my information came from Oliver's letter, he states:
"I learned all this when I naively wrote to GE's present chairman deploring the fact that under GE's more than 15 years of management the HMV trade-mark, introduced by my grandfather, Emile, in 1900 and which reigned for a full half-century as the world's most recognized trade-mark, had not only fallen into disuse but was not even among the top 100 marques. My plan to revitalize the marque was, obviously, not to be implemented The HMV and RCA marques are now officially owned by RCA Trade-mark Management, a Thomson subsidiary operating out of the former Victor Records pressing plant in Indianapolis." Obviously until Oliver wrote the letter, he also thought GE owned the trademark. I am sorry to say I all of the information I have comes from the letter. Oliver later states that no one at Thomson knows anything about the history of the trademarks, nor of RCA or RCA Victor. As I am ignorant of its recent history, it is easy for me to believe GE gave it up as I recently read in the paper where film studios threw out old recording and films and autographed items and some of these items have been rescued from land fills and dumpsters by a LA performer and collector. From what I read in the letter GE had no further use for it as they were no longer making applicable products and Thomson is now in the same situation and decided to rent its use out. Oliver's "Hidden in that contract was a clause" gives me the idea that perhaps GE was not aware it was selling the trademarks after a 15 year period. I copied the from letter and tried to keep it saying what it said, and hopefully I did not change the meaning. I will be happy to send you the letter as an attachment or a photocopy. I learned that marque is n. a product model or type, I had never seen the word used before this way. The HMV I refer to is the Trade-Mark showing Nipper listening to the early Victor which is registered as No. 34,890. This is what is pictured at the top right of the letter. Please let me know if I can be helpful or answer any other questions. Steve > This is a huge surprise to me. GE no longer owns the Nipper logo? What > about the RCA logo? It would seem even harder to believe that GE would > give up the latter. GE has always been known for keeping its logos and > trademarks, and they seldom give them up. > > Also, I was curious about your comments about GE owning the HMV logo. > My impression was that GE never owned that. Or did you mean to say > "Nipper", rather than HMV? My impression was always that RCA, HMV, and > maybe even Japanese Victor (JVC), may have had separate rights to the > Nipper logo. > > Jim >
