[78-L] Is Nipper Trademark worth $78 million

[Michael Biel]

U.S. trademarks are on a use-it-or-lose-it basis, and it is interesting
to know about the multiple registrations -- dead and alive. I recall
when RCA was broken up back in the 80s that the trademarks were split
between G.E. and Thompson, so I guess that if Technicolor has use of the
Thompson line, and Sony/BMG is licensing it from G.E., then the other
dead registrations might be moot.  I have a cheapie phonograph/DVD
player with Nipper from about 5 years ago and have seen him on other
electronics, so I think those are the use-it uses.  But it is
fascinating to see in the Bloomberg video that there had been
registrations taken out by EMI even for coffee bars.  Steve Ramm (who
started this thread) will remember his visit to The Dog and Trumpet Pub
in London in the late 1990s, and the only remnant of it when we were
there in 2001 was the souvenir pub sign which I bought but he didn't. 
There is a Victor's Pub in the Camden factory condo.  Wouldn't you
rather go to a Nipper Coffee Bar than a Starbucks? (. . . unless the
coffee tastes like dog piss!)

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com 


-------- Original Message --------

> On 01/25/2013 03:55 PM, Rodger Holtin wrote:
>> Wik The Pedia says Nipper is Public Domain in the USA.
>> Really?
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Master's_Voice
>> Is anybody in the US using it for anything?

From: Michael Shoshani<michael.shoshani at gmail.com>
> That bit was actually added by me. It's not completely Public Domain;
> there's one live registration and about six dead. The live registration,
> owned by Technicolor sA (successor to Thomson), is pretty much limited
> to combination radio-phonograph sets as I recall.
>
> SonyBMG is still using it (licensed from General Electric, I think) for
> CDs though. But all the trademark registrations in the USPTO database
> for sound recordings have expired without renewal and are dead.   MS


On 1/25/2013 5:44 PM, Rodger Holtin wrote:
> If the existing registrations are dead, could someone apply for new usage and gain registration?
> (Most of us know less about trademark registrations than copyright - which ain't much to begin with.)
>
> If the UK thinks it's worth 78 million (bucks or Lumps/Pounds), what is it worth in the USA? If Nipper really is out to pasture for the last roundup, apparently not much. Interesting turn of fortune. Seems like the Brits didn't think much of Nipper when he was new until the Yanks got interested, right? [Is Oliver B. still with us?] Rodger
>
From: David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca>
Oliver B is very much with us and still collecting Nipper paintings. One
in 
particular he's looking for is in Canada. (According to one source,
Nipper 
appeared on Canadian pressings before showing up on US labels.)   dl