Searching trademarks and logos

Searching for historical trademarks is even trickier than searching for historical patents.

Slide rule collectors often encounter slide rules with unknown trademarks. These trademarks usually do not refer to the maker of the slide rule, but to some company that used it for advertising.

As an example, take a slide rule in the collection of Tina Cordon: a Boots Ringplan Precision Log Log.

Breaking news

Nov 16, 2017, IP Australia announced TM-link, a new global Trademark database.

Figure 1: Boots Ringplan Precision Log Log

Figure 2: Logo on Boots Ringplan Precision Log Log

The slide rule shows a logo I did not recognize (Figure 2)

Another slide rule in Tina's collection shows a variant of this logo:

Figure 3: Logo on Boots Ringplan 10" Standard

Does the logo refer to “Boots Ringplan” or to the maker? And at what time was it used?

An online search for “Boots Ringplan” only results in slide rules, no other devices or company information.

The company could have been simply “Boots”, the famous English pharmacy. But why would a pharmacy create a brand name only for slide rules?

Based on its general appearance, the slide rule is probably made in Japan by Hope, Jakar or Fuji.

Image search

How can you derive from a logo the brand name or its owner?

First I tried Google Image Search. You can offer your own image to Google Image Search (by uploading it via the camera in the search bar, or, in most web browsers, by dragging it to the bar). Google will search for images that look like the one you gave. The logo in Figure 2 did not work out well: Google thought it was an orange and even added the search term “orange”. Even when I deleted “orange” from the query the results showed lots of images of oranges. A black-and-white version of the logo was a “circle” according to Google. In this case the list of "similar pictures", according to Google, did contain many logos, but not the one we are looking for.

The European Union Intellectual Property Office offers a similar search facility in the EUIPO trademark database. The black-and-white version of the logo gives 2612 “hits”, but not the one we are looking for. The best hit is a logo of a Swiss optician, pavian design GmbH, but it is rotated and registered in 2014, which is too late for the slide rule.

The search engine of the WIPO Global Brand database also accepts an image as a query input through the option Filter by...Image. This will sort the results of an ordinary query by similarity with the uploaded image. So the name “Filter” is a bit misleading. The sorting algorithm can be controlled by choosing a “Strategy”. You can filter by Image Types “verbal”, “nonverbal”, “combined” and “unknown”, i,e, by the occurrence or absence of text in the logo.

Using the black-and-white version of the logo, strategy “Shape” and Image Type “nonverbal” results in the pavian design GmbH logo in second place, with an image that doesn't look like our logo at all. The other strategies (with Image Type “nonverbal”) do not perform better. Figure 5 shows the “best hits” for the several sorting strategies. Because there are 1.602.390 “nonverbal” logos in the database a better sorting is necessary.

Figure 4: Boots logo

(left to right) Image searched for; Best hit for Shape; Best hit for Texture; Best hit for Composite; 2nd hit for Shape (pavian design)

Figure 5: WIPO results: left: Image searched for; followed by: Best hit for Shape; Best hit for Texture; Best hit for Composite; 2nd hit for Shape (pavian design)

Graphical descriptions

Online databases with logo’s (trademarks) can also be queried by graphical descriptions. The logos are described with one or more codes. In the USA the “USPTO Design Code” (DC) is used, and in the rest van the world (a.o.EUIPO) the "Vienna Classification" (VC or VCL).

At first sight, the codes look alike: they exist of 3 groups of 2 digits. The next table summarizes the main categories, that are coded in the first 2 digits.

In case where the descriptions of the main categories with the same code differ, the additional explanation of the VCL and DC make them more or less compliant. For instance, for main category 29 (VLC: “colours” resp. DC: ”miscellaneous”) the DC explanation indicates that it applies to logos that consist solely of color. There are still some uncertainties left: main category 24 is about a.o. “symbols”, which includes punctuation according to the explanation. But punctuation can also be regarded as part of main category 28 (“character”), and the explanation of main category 29 also mentions punctuation.

The logo we are looking for seems to belong to main category 26. Now it gets complicated: VCL and DC distinguish different subcategories. Sometimes subcategories that look alike have different codes. Some category 26 codes are shown in the next table:

The codes 26.01.05 or 26.01.06 (for VCL) and 26.01.20 (for DC) seem to give the best description of our logo. The DC-manual gives for 26.01.20 an example that looks very much like our logo, but is rotated (Figure 6 at the right)

Figure 6: Examples for DC code 20.01.20

Figure 7: Logo of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (4545619[RN])

The DC code can be used in the the USPTO trademark search engine TESS via the “Field Tag and Search Bulder” in “Expert” mode. The query will be “DC:260120“ . Note that the dots between the digits are omitted. The result consists of about 13527 hits.

A refinement of the query could be: “DC:260120 NOT DC:260121 NOT DC:27.03.01” This excludes filled-in circles and circles that are part of letters, and gives 4395 hits. I viewed them all via the “Image List” button…

In the search results we find the rightmost example of Figure 6 as a trademark for Ventracor Ltd, Australia, which was taken over by Thoratec Corporation in California, a manufacturer of medical equipment. The logo has been used between 2007 and 2013 (register number RN:3205041) This is too late for our logo.

The search results also contain the pavian design GmbH logo we found earlier.

We also find a trademark for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (RN:4545619) that is used from the year 2014 onward and looks even more like our logo. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is a non-profit organisation that tries to stimulate the “circular economy”.

The bold italic links open a pre-filled search form in TESS .

Just hit "Submit Query" to see the results.

Do not forget to log out from TESS when finished, as a courtesy to other users.

The logo we are looking for does not appear in the 4395 search results.

In the WIPO Global Brand database one can also search by image description. This database contains a.o. the USPTO trademark database. Therefore, when searching by “Image Class” a prefix “US” (for DC) or “VC” (for VCL) has to added to the code, e.g. VC.26.01.05. You will to perform most queries twice: once for VCL and once for DC.

Nice

Apart from the Image Class there is a classification for the products of services for which a logo is registered: the Nice International Classification of Goods and Services.

Slide rules belong to Nice class 090102, circular slide rules belong to another class: 090101. Until 1973 the United States used its own product classification.

Unfortunately the WIPO Global Brand database can only be queried on main Nice categories. For slide rules that would be 09, which includes all kinds of measuring, calculating and optical devices, and even fire extinguishers. If Boots intended to use the Ringplan brand name for office supplies Nice category 16 would have been appropriate.

Now we are able to refine the WIPO Global Brand query that gave us 1,6 million hits:

Black-and-white image of the logo with Strategy=Shape and Image Type=Nonverbal and Image Class VC.26.01.05 and Nice 09 gives 2073 hits. Because the sorting does not work well I watched all hits. Thoratec Corporation popped up again. And because glasses are also optical instruments pavian design GmbH also appears. Even the Ellen MacArthur Foundation got Nice code 09, with 5 other codes. Because the descriptions of VC.26.01.05 and VC.26.01.06 are similar I also checked black-and-white image of the logo with Strategy=Shape and Image Type=Nonverbal and Image Class VC.26.01.06 and Nice 09. This gave 2599 hits, but not what we are loooking for.

For the USA the WIPO query black-and-white image of the logo with Strategy=Composite and Image Type=Nonverbal and Image Class US.26.01.20 and Nice 09 gives 462 hits, so less than the complex query in TESS which did not use an image nor a Nice-code. The usual suspects are found again, but not logo we are looking for.

So maybe Nice 09 should not have been used in our case. Nice 16 (office supplies) gives less hits, but again our logo is missing.

How global is the WIPO Global Brand Database?

The WIPO Global Brand database covers a lot of countries and regions, but many countries still offer their own online trademark database. Because we were not able to answer our question with a comprehensive database, we might have more luck with national ones.

In the Trademark Register of the UK Intellectual Property Office one can search using VCL and Nice codes, with one exception: all codes in the main VCL category 26 are excluded because they would give to many hits. This renders the UK Intellectual Property Office Trademark Register useless for our quest. Just to be sure, I searched for “Boots” and “Ringplan”. The result showed many conventional Boots logos, but not the one we are looking for, and "Ringplan" did not result in anything.

In the Japan Platform For Patent Information one can search VCL codes from category 26. A search on VCL 26.01.05 (Classification of Figures etc) and Nice 9 (Class) gives “too many” hits, and has to be refined before anything will be shown. A good filter is the “Similar Group Code”. With the “imilar Group Code 25B01 slide rules can be distinguished from the other Nice 9 categories, like the fire extinguishers,,.

The “Benelux-Bureau voor het Intellectuele Eigendom” (BBIE, represented in the WIPO database as BX) also has an online trademark register.The BBIE limits the number of hits to 1000, but does show them. Because the results can be sorted by date we can see old logos without refining the query.

In the trademark register of the Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt the Nice-codes are called “Klassen Nizza“ and VC-codes “Bildklassen (Wien)”. The combination of VC-code 26.01.05 and Nice 09 gives 2750 hits.

The WIPO Global Brand Database is not the only comprehensive database. The European Trade Mark and Design Network runs TMview, which contains trademark data from 27 EU member states (at the time of writing including the UK) and data from the EUIPO and WIPO databases. TMview claims to contain about 36 million trademarks. The WIPO Global Brand Database has only 26 million. WIPO and TMview offer to translate a query for one database to a query for the other database. TMview cannot compare a user-uploaded picture with images in its database. TMview is also more restrictive in the kind of queries it allows: in TMview you cannot search by VCL only.

Scope of the databases

The databases do not indicate clearly how far they go back in time, and how complete the descriptions are of old logos.

Slide rules in logo’s

Slide rules can also be shown in a logo. Again, VCL and DC differ considerably:

TESS finds 98 logo’s with 17.07.02 “Slide rules, abacuses or the like”, most of which show an abacus. This category also covers compasses and other drawing tools. Some examples of logo’s with a slide rule are shown below. Most of them date from the 1960’s.

Figure 8: University of Missouri (4015655[RN])

Figure 9: American Society of Plumbing Engineers (1085124[RN])

Figure 10: American Association of Cost Engineers (0949352[RN])

Figure 11: Sverdrup & Parcel and Associates (0813645[RN])

Figure 12: Electronic Research Associates, Inc (0802592[RN])

The WIPO Global Brand database contains 133 logos with VC.17.05.03 “Slide rules, calculating disks and cylinders” (this does not contain the American logo’s). Most of them do not show a recognizable real slide rule. In some cases the logo only contains an abacus, while the special VCL code for “abacus” (17.05.04) has not been assigned. So classifying logos is still prone to human error.

Conclusion

The existence of comprehensive trademark databases like WIPO Global Brand and TMview has not yet led to a one-stop-shop for historical trade mark research. This is partly caused by the use of two image classification systems (DC and VCL) and by differences in interpretations between the national and regional organizations for trademark registration. Historical trade mark searches are preferably started in the WIPO Global Brand or TMview, and, if necessary, extended to national or regional organizations for trademark registration.

A Dutch version of this paper appeared in MIR 74, October 2017. Hit counts and database properties were collected in the summer of 2016. Links were updated in the summer of 2020.

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