On Sep 1, 2010, at 7:11 PM, Andrew Baron wrote:
> Which brings me to the point: Does anyone here know the current ownership
> status of the famous trademark?
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I'm reposting the Rolfs' email on the Nipper Trademark:
Jim Nichol
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From: Robin Rolfs <nip...@dataex.com>
Subject: [Phono-L] Rights to HMV
Date: September 25, 2008 3:28:38 PM EDT
To: Antique Phonograph List <phono-l@oldcrank.org>
Reply-To: Antique Phonograph List <phono-l@oldcrank.org>
Greetings,
We recently wrote a book on Nipper Collectibles and the history of the
Nipper Trademark, which we hope every collector has added to their library.
In short, Nipper and the "His Master's Voice" along with RCA, once the most
powerful trademarks in the world have dissipated into the foreign graveyard
of cast-off and near forgotten trademarks. Here are our summarized
findings:
"RCA" is nothing more than a trademark. Once acquired by General Electric
in 1986, it RCA Records to Bertelsmann A.G. A year later, both RCA and GE
Consumer Electronics businesses were sold to the French firm, Thomson SA,
while GE retained RCA's NBC broadcasting interests. In 1988, Thomson
Consumer Electronics was formed and later renamed Thomson Multimedia in
1995, and in 2002 was again renamed Thomson SA. Thomson bought the "His
Master's Voice" trademark from GE in 2003 and transferred it to RCA
Trademark Management SA in France. One year later, Thomson entered into a
joint venture with TCL Corporation, a large electronics manufacturing
company in southern China. TCL has acquired all the manufacturing rights to
RCA brand televisions. The last of the Thomson line of RCA consumer
electronics was recently purchased by Audiovox. Meanwhile, RCA Records is
now part of Sony BMG Music Group. RCA Laboratories has been transferred to
SRI International and renamed Sarnoff Corporation. RCA Aerospace & Defense
combined with GE Aerospace, only to be sold to Martin Marietta in 1993 which
soon merged with Lockheed Corporation. In the spring of 1997, Lockheed
Martin Communications Systems, Camden, NJ was renamed L-3 Communication
Corp.
England still retains the rights to use the trademark logo and name for
their "HMV" stores. China, who indirectly obtained the logo from the U.S.
through Thomson can only use it on products sold in China. Likewise, in
Japan, JVC founded in 1927 as "The Victor Company of Japan," now owned by
Matsushita, can use the HMV logo only on products sold in Japan. Because of
territorial licensing, Nipper can no longer be used as a tool in the global
marketing and identification of a product. Since the trademark can
legitimately only be used only for products sold in the country of origin,
it is doubtful that it will ever show up on products intended to be sold
internationally. Since no single entity "owns" the trademark, its use for
other purposes (collectibles, nick-knacks, T-shirts, crap-o-phones) goes
unchallenged.
Robin & Joan Rolfs
Visit us at:
www.audioantique.com
On Sep 1, 2010, at 7:11 PM, Andrew Baron wrote:
> Which brings me to the point: Does anyone here know the current ownership
> status of the famous trademark?
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