Trademark Images,

[rhr]

Recently while performing a Google search for some trademark-related issue, one of the hits that came up was for this mysterious website and blogspot, http://trade.mar.cx. It was started about Mar 12, 2010, and the site owner, database collector, and blogger is anonymous, but let's call him "he". Neither does the site have a real name except for its URL, or domain, or web address, "trade.mar.cx", which sort of doubles as it name when sounded out as a word, "trademarks". The country code ".cx" is for Christmas Island, but I don't think he resides there. The country code was probably chosen for its sound-alike property. And for those who are sensitive to such matters, be warned that he uses the f-word, and the acronym WTH in his blog.

 

The site consists of a database of trademarks from many countries, and a blogspot that features some of his favorite, and least favorite goofy trademark images. There is no "About Me" page, and no "Contact" link. The only explanation is this short introduction, "What's all this? trade.mar.cx is a collection of worldwide trademarks -- over eight million and growing, from Australia, Canada, Chile, Germany (including trademarks registered in East Germany), Ireland, New Zealand, and the United States. Coming soon are Austria, Benelux, Czech Republic, France, Israel, Italy, Jersey, Philippines, Russia, and the United Kingdom". And at the bottom of every page there is an anti-copyright, or copyleft, "©̸ Copyleft 2010", which basically means there is no copyright. Copy and remix at will, but with fair use.

 

The only problems are with the search function in the database. There aren't any advanced search functions, and no ways of making the search specific to a certain country, or a certain period, or time frame. Also the search results are not arranged in any systematic way, whether alphabetic, or chronological, or by relevance. In fact, they are totally random. A search for a word such as "pen", or "pens", or "pencil" finds the search term in the title, and then goes on to find all uses of the word elsewhere in the individual trademark records and quickly devolves into an endless search. And any search for a hyphenated word such as "North-Rite" treats the two parts as separate words, and quickly devolves into an endless search that finds any uses of those words, both together, or separately, or individually. Also, some of the oldest trademarks simply can't be found at all.

 

Not all entries have links to images of the actual trademarks, but here's the best thing about the site. Once you find the trademark image, the site affords a way of linking to the trademark images with a much shorter, almost tiny URL. A long URL such as this one on the USPTO website,

 

http:// tmportal.uspto.gov/external/PA_TOWUserInterface/OpenServletWindow?serialNumber=71108028&scanDate=2005102269194&DocDesc=Registration+Certificate&docType=ORC&currentPage=1&rowNum=1&rowCount=1&formattedDate=30-Jul-1918

 

becomes this on trade.mar.cx,

 

http://img02.mar.cx/us/122401.png.

 

And Larry Allin, a search for the word "Inkograph" yields no trademark for that name. All it finds is "Leado Graph" and "Glide-O-Matic".

 

George Kovalenko.

 

Edited October 10, 2010 by rhr

[Roger W.]

George;

 

Interesting! I did not find many of the early trademarks with searches that should have found them. Of course, I don't think we know what the database is gathering. Still, interesting.

 

Roger W.

[Vintagepens]

Thanks, George -- but may I recommend caution in using shortened URLs. The problem is that these convenient redirects also mask the actual destination, and as such have often been used to lure the unwary to domains that they might otherwise think twice about visiting.

 

There are now services that "unpack" shortened URLs so you can see where they actually go. Google to find them; one I use for tinyurl addresses is http://kiserai.net/turl.pl

[lallin]

And Larry Allin, a search for the word "Inkograph" yields no trademark for that name. All it finds is "Leado Graph" and "Glide-O-Matic".

 

George Kovalenko.

 

Thanks for checking.

 

Apparently the Inkograph registration was unavailable to USPTO when they built their database. I suppose I'll spend a day at the St. Louis Public Library going through the hardcopy patent and trademark books from 1913-to about 1920 to find the registration info. Unfortunately, that will be sometime off; St. Louis Public Library Main Branch is closed for remodelling and these great referance materials, as well as the magazine archives, are inaccessible for the next couple of years.

[rhr]

I agree, David. I never open any tiny URLs. Thanks for the link for checking them.

 

But in this case, I don't think the short URLs for the trademark images on this website are so-called "tiny URLs". It looks like they are hosted on the same domain as the main site. There is no redirecting involved. It just happens that the owner chose to make the image URLs short, which a lot more websites should do. The problem with institutional and governmental websites is that the URLs are generated by a computer in a systematic way that makes all the filing pathways transparent, but it also makes them a mile long.

 

A good example of this that's closer to home are the URLs for messages on FPN. It used to be so easy to find a topic on FPN. All you needed to know was the topic number, and then you could use the same root URL,

 

www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/,

 

and simply add, or change the topic number. But now it's not so easy to find and link to the message URL. It must now also contain a hyphenated version of the topic title, so a URL such as this,

 

www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/169844,

 

must now look like this,

 

www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/169844-evolution-of-the-relative-price-and-life-expectancy-of-a-pen-sustainability/.

 

I think shortening, not lengthening, is the way of the future.

 

George Kovalenko.

 

Edited October 10, 2010 by rhr

[rhr]

After reading my last message it occurred to me that I might be able to apply my own rule by simply changing the number in the image URLs from the trade.mar.cx website to find specific, or hard to find trademarks on that site. So for example, take the URL for "Leado Graph", http://img02.mar.cx/us/156306.png, and change the number to 37,762 without the comma, and you get the trademark image for the Waterman's "Makes Its Mark All Around The World" trademark. There's the odd one that isn't there, such as 46,736 for Boston Fountain Pen Co., but most of the early ones are there. And so on, and so on, and so on, right back to number 1, if you have a list of all the writing-instrument trademark numbers.

 

And Larry, good luck with your search, and please let us know when you finally track down the Inkograph trademark.

 

George Kovalenko.

 

Edited October 10, 2010 by rhr