When a mark becomes a word
What it means for a mark to become the common name of a product, and how the law decides.
A journal kept at the assay bench
The Kitemark and the bent rail
In 1903 the body that became Britain's standards institution registered a kite-shaped mark first used on tramway rails. It is among the oldest product quality marks still in regular use.
A reader's journal on the marks a community shares: collective marks, certification seals, appellations of origin and the story of Europe's old Community Trade Mark, assayed piece by piece against the public record.
The bench before opening hour, punches already laid out Photograph: June Halloran
latest
Struck this season
The boat cruise years
What the cruises of 2003 to 2008 say about how the marks world actually meets.
The office at Alicante
Where the EU trade mark physically lives and what the building's habits tell a reader.
The hallmark row
Why the oldest living certification mark is struck with a punch, not printed.
How a mark gets entered
The filing path in order, for readers who want to see the machine before trusting it.
Champagne and the map of names
What a geographical indication is, read through the name that fought longest for it.
The Woolmark story
How the modern certification mark was invented: a levy, a competition and a symbol.
The punches
The four punches
The bench keeps four punches, busiest first.
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the books where shared marks are kept: the CTM story, the office at Alicante, oppositions and renewals
One punch of the four · 6 pieces -
certification marks, hallmarks and standards: the sign that vouches for quality
One punch of the four · 4 pieces -
appellations, geographical indications and protected names of food and drink
One punch of the four · 3 pieces -
the associations, congresses and fairs where the marks world meets
One punch of the four · 3 pieces
The tray empties
The rest of the pieces
Every piece on the tray, latest struck first.
Assayed against
Assayed against the public record
Every piece is checked against the offices and organisations that keep the record: named, linked, never anonymous.
- WIPOthe world office: Madrid, Lisbon and the treaty shelf
- EUIPOAlicante, keeper of the EU trade mark since the CTM days
- USPTOthe American register and its public search room
- INTAthe association whose annual meeting the old initiative sailed beside
- EU quality schemesthe register of appellations, PDO and PGI
The bench by letter
The bench by letter
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From other benches
Sources elsewhere
A short list of other sites our editors find useful or instructive.
On the same tray sits a drawer of legal kits, where the paperwork behind a stamp is kept in order for readers who like their forms sorted.
Beside the bench works a desk that reads trade flows, where the names on the labels turn back into cargo, routes and numbers.
Down the row stands a market by the water, where the stallholders' own names still matter more to a buyer than any printed brand.
Across the aisle, a brewery that signs its barrels keeps its own tally, since a house mark burned into a cask is the oldest certification going.
And for the passages between the benches there is a guide to the markers, for every sign that tells a traveller where the channel runs.
For founders weighing how to fund a young company, eithanventures.com sets out the choice between debt, equity and grants, the balance of self-funding against outside capital, and how much to raise for pre-seed, seed and Series A.
For editors and producers weighing image rights, blackstonestockfootage.com explains the difference between royalty free and rights managed licensing, how a fee is calculated, and when buying existing footage beats shooting original material.