TAKE A BREAK!

Need to get your head off Corona? Need a time-out from working on files, writing letters or answering emails? Get it where you do not expect it!

(Source:  https://www.dpma.de/english/our_office/publications/milestones/index.html)

The German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA), a source of information -- not just for plain (“boring”) facts relating to patents, trademarks and designs, but also for fun facts around IP rights. We strongly recommend taking a look that the DPMA’s homepage at www.dpma.de (English version available). Go to “Our Office”, then to “Publication” and “Milestones” and start reading… about the Beatles and what Apple Corp. has to do with Apple Inc., about Asterix and his creator Uderzo, about Mickey and Donald and other trademarks of Disney, about the Easter bunny laying eggs or about Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen who discovered X-rays.

Did you know, for instance, that

• The predecessors of roller coasters were called “Russian Mountains” – artificial sliding hills with a layer of ice that had become popular in St. Petersburg in the 17^th century, already, with first patents going back to the mid 1800s. (https://www.dpma.de/english/our_office/publications/milestones/rollercoaster/index.html; http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/v/a/vac3/table.html)

• The Patent Office of the Netherlands refused to grant a patent, applied for in 1964, for a method of lifting sunken ships, in which foam balls were pumped into the wrecks to give them buoyancy. Reason for the denial was the lack the novelty due to a Donald Duck story published about 15 years earlier in which Donald Duck had used table tennis balls to lift a sunken yacht. (https://www.dpma.de/english/our_office/publications/milestones/donaldduckwird85/index.html)

• One of the world’s oldest perfume manufacturers is “Johann Maria Farina gegenüber dem Jülichs-Platz GmbH” in Cologne which has been existing for over 310 years. The company, original inventor of “Eau de Cologne”, counts numerous famous and influential people among its customers, including Queen Victoria, Kaiser Wilhelm I., Napoleon, Mozart, Beethoven, Goethe, Oscar Wilde and even Bill Clinton. At one time, the company was so famous that even its address in Cologne “gegenüber” (opposite) Jülichs-Platz became a trademark. “Farina gegenüber” has been trademark protected in Germany since its first registration on 7 December 1929. https://www.dpma.de/english/our_office/publications/milestones/aeltesterparfuemherstellerderwelt/index.html)

• Strandkorbs are a special kind of beach chairs for which the German northern coast is known. The number of all strandkorbs on the German shore is estimated at about 100,000, but its original inventor has never asked for patent protection. (https://www.dpma.de/english/our_office/publications/milestones/derstrandkorb/index.html)

• The idea of “Post-it”^® stickers was born because one of the developers thought it nice to have a bookmark that stayed in place without damaging the pages of the book he used during his church choir rehearsals. (https://www.dpma.de/english/our_office/publications/milestones/post-itanniversary/index.html)

Does the trademark office in your country have a website with fun facts like these? If so, please share the link with us here or by email to info@lexdellmeier.com

And if after reading all these fun stories you still have time and not yet enough of trademarks, how about playing a game of MONOPOLY^® or LOGO?

For now, enjoy reading!