If the specific graphic art(trademark) is not renewed every 5 years with the US government it becomes available for use by anyone until someone comes up with the registration fee. This is country specific and not a world wide license for a trademark unless there is a reciprocity treaty with an other country. In other words, Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc has to come up with a couple of $$ for the worlds supply of petty bureaucrats every 5 years(for the US, other countries may be different) to maintain control over the use of the word Kleenex.
Robin Rolfs wrote: > Greetings, > > We recently wrote a book on Nipper Collectibles and the history of the > Nipper Trademark, which we hope every collector has added to their library. > In short, Nipper and the "His Master's Voice" along with RCA, once the most > powerful trademarks in the world have dissipated into the foreign graveyard > of cast-off and near forgotten trademarks. Here are our summarized > findings: > > "RCA" is nothing more than a trademark. Once acquired by General Electric > in 1986, it RCA Records to Bertelsmann A.G. A year later, both RCA and GE > Consumer Electronics businesses were sold to the French firm, Thomson SA, > while GE retained RCA's NBC broadcasting interests. In 1988, Thomson > Consumer Electronics was formed and later renamed Thomson Multimedia in > 1995, and in 2002 was again renamed Thomson SA. Thomson bought the "His > Master's Voice" trademark from GE in 2003 and transferred it to RCA > Trademark Management SA in France. One year later, Thomson entered into a > joint venture with TCL Corporation, a large electronics manufacturing > company in southern China. TCL has acquired all the manufacturing rights to > RCA brand televisions. The last of the Thomson line of RCA consumer > electronics was recently purchased by Audiovox. Meanwhile, RCA Records is > now part of Sony BMG Music Group. RCA Laboratories has been transferred to > SRI International and renamed Sarnoff Corporation. RCA Aerospace & Defense > combined with GE Aerospace, only to be sold to Martin Marietta in 1993 which > soon merged with Lockheed Corporation. In the spring of 1997, Lockheed > Martin Communications Systems, Camden, NJ was renamed L-3 Communication > Corp. > > England still retains the rights to use the trademark logo and name for > their "HMV" stores. China, who indirectly obtained the logo from the U.S. > through Thomson can only use it on products sold in China. Likewise, in > Japan, JVC founded in 1927 as "The Victor Company of Japan," now owned by > Matsushita, can use the HMV logo only on products sold in Japan. Because of > territorial licensing, Nipper can no longer be used as a tool in the global > marketing and identification of a product. Since the trademark can > legitimately only be used only for products sold in the country of origin, > it is doubtful that it will ever show up on products intended to be sold > internationally. Since no single entity "owns" the trademark, its use for > other purposes (collectibles, nick-knacks, T-shirts, crap-o-phones) goes > unchallenged. > > Robin & Joan Rolfs > Visit us at: > www.audioantique.com > > > _______________________________________________ > Phono-L mailing list > http://phono-l.oldcrank.org > >
