Content

In the video: 130 years of the brand - how it all began

Youtube content

This video is provided via the Youtube video platform. If you use services of this provider, it may be that usage data is collected and possibly stored in server logs. The German Patent and Trade Mark Office has no influence on the type and scope of the transmitted or stored data. For more information on the data collected by Youtube, its storage and use, please refer to the externer Link Privacy Policy of the provider.

“Perkeo": The first registered DE trade mark

When the Imperial Patent Office (as the DPMA was then called) was founded in 1877, it was not yet responsible for registering trade marks. “Factory marks” or ‘trademarks’, as they were called at the time, were filed with the courts. Only figurative marks were permitted. This only changed when the “Law for the Protection of Trade Marks” came into force on October 1, 1894 (it had already been passed on May 12). From then on, the Patent Office was also responsible for trademark registration. Pure word marks could now also be registered. On October 1, metal goods entrepreneur Carl Holty applied for the first German word mark “Perkeo”. The trademark was already registered on October 16 for lamps and lamp parts.

A dwarf as namesake

Brand number 1 - Perkeo

The brand name goes back to "Perkeo", who worked as a dwarf at the court of the Palatine Elector Charles III in the 18th century. According to tradition, the man from Tyrol, who weighed 100 kilograms, guarded the so-called Big Barrel in Heidelberg Castle, which at the time held around 222,000 litres. When asked by his lord, whether he could drink the barrel alone, he was asked "Perché no? ("Why not?"). And so he got his name.

Brands can live forever

It is not known why Carl Holty chose this name for his lamps. What is certain is that the trademark is still registered in the DPMAregister today, for the time being until 2034. And the trademark could loosely become 150 years or older, because trademark protection can be extended indefinitely.

Around 895,000 German trademarks are currently valid

What one would probably never have dreamed of in 1894: A total of around 895,000 German trademarks are currently in force. Their paper files are kept in the trade mark archive at the Jena office. However, since the introduction of electronic trade mark files in 2015, the DPMA has only stored new trade marks electronically. This makes perfect sense because 87% of all trade marks are registered online. This means that in 100 years' time, people will no longer be able to view the registered trade marks - in contrast to trade mark number 1 - as a “paper file”. But perhaps in the not too distant future, people will be asking themselves what “paper files” are?

Pictures: DPMA

Last updated: 14 October 2024