41, The Red & Black,

[rhr]

This is about the Black Top, the Duofold color scheme, red with black tips. Here are all the Duofold trademarks. Parker's trademark no. 155,044 from May 16, 1922, but used since Sept 1, 1921, is for the word "Duofold" used for "Fountain Pens". It was registered by William Fink Palmer, at this time the treasurer of the Parker Pen Co., but at other times also secretary and president. There is no certificate on the USPTO website for trademark no. 163,481 from Jan 16, 1923, but said to be used since Aug 25, 1921, Parker's trademark for the Duofold pen color scheme, which is a shame because it's such a pretty image. I got a hardcopy version of the trademark, and it shows a cross-hatched, black-and-white rendition of a red hard rubber pen body with two black hard rubber ends. It was advertized with the phrase "Rivals the beauty of the Scarlet Tanager". And here's another usual reverse situation, a trademark issued after the fact. The word "Duofold" was trademarked again on Nov 4, 1924, but was said to be used since Sept 1, 1923, no. 191,306 for "Pens And Pencils". This is not a typo for 1921, but rather a re-trademarking of the name after the inclusion of pencils in the Duofold line. The usual reverse situation is that a trademark is issued after, and sometimes well after, the fact of the commercial use of the name or mark. These trademarks were part of Parker's unsuccessful attempt to stop all the Duofold look-alike pens in the 1920s, pens such as the red hard rubber Diamond Point Pen Co. "Tucolor Fill E-Z" pen with its black hard rubber cap and barrel tips. And last but not less red, trademark no. 943,258 is for the Parker Pen Co. name "Big Red" for their Duofold-tribute felt-tip and ballpoint pen, issued on Sept 19, 1972, but used since Apr 10, 1970. See also the underwear, or "softwear", in trademark nos. 195,873, 784,484, and 857,073, and patent no. 709,734. The name "Dudfold" [sic] mentioned in the last trademark, but only in TESS in the USPTO website, is a misspelling, or optical-character-recognition problem, but a spelling that's quite apropos for clothing. ;~)

 

George Kovalenko.

 

 

If you want to perform the trademark searches, simply cut and paste, or type the trademark numbers into the search window in the Trademark Document Retrieval Portlet.

Edited July 16, 2010 by rhr