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IBM is a registered trademark of IBM, and we promise to never forget .....

 International Business Machines Corporation (IBM, or colloquially, Big Blue) has registered and used many versions of their trademarks and logo over the last 100 or so years with little confusion as to who IBM was or is. All images presented here, along with all references to IBM Logos, Collectibles and Memorabilia are used descriptively! This site and its contents, are not in any way connected to, or endorsed in any way by, the Itty-Bitty-Machine-company, its agents or even it's detractors. These mutterings have been compiled by a collector who has an appreciation for IBMcollectables and likes to share a good story. Consider this my "for the record" disclaimer . Bob Bradlee your host, curator and mutterer.

Last updated: Feb 12, 2006

If you googled into the middle of this story, here is a link that will take you to a point where you can catch up with some of the background behind
Paul Rand and IBM Logo history ... ...

USTPO Logo

USPTO registration info ...

In an attempt to better understand the timeline surrounding the Thirteen Striper I went to the United States Patent and Trademark Office's Trademark Electronic Search System (Tess) in search of any and all records that could shed some light on the timeline. What I found fit the evidence nicely.

Gold Thitreen Striper
On April 25, 1980 IBM filed a trademark registration for the Thirteen stripe logo claiming a first use in commerce of 1967, exactly 13 years prior to its belated registration. Registration was approved March 9, 1982 Registration Number 1191570. According to the USPTO records, on October 19, 1988 this trademark was canceled and on 8/5/1994 the dead file was destroyed and the ThirteenStriper was put to rest.

IBM Eight Striper Logo
Five days after the Trademark application was filed for the then thirteen year old Thirteen Stripe trademark, a second trademark application was filed by IBM for the Eight Stripe Logo. The new applications claim a range of "first used in commerce dates" between 5/1/1967 and May 1976 depending on the product or service claimed. On August 17, 1982 registration number 1205090 was approved and on 10/11/2002 the registration was renewed for an additional 10 years. IBM has a number of live trademarks in the Tess system, including the following::


0640606 - 1/29/1957 0715364 - 5/16/1961 1058803 - 2/15/1977 1205090 - 8/17/1982 1243930 - 6/28/1983 1694814 - 6/16/1992 1696454 - 6/23/1992 1844181 - 7/19/1994 2183815 - 8/25/1998 2618554 - 9/10/2002

1992 IBM Trademark

1992  - IBM registered a new one ...

Registration  1844181 was granted on 7/12/1994 for a wide range of goods and services. It was renewed in 2004 for an additional 10 years, but only for two of the originally eight protected classes of goods. A review of the classes being renewed reveal a strong desire to control the production of collectibles. The classes being renewed are: Class: 016 pens, pens used for highlighting, memo pads, posters, postcards, and paper weights along with Class: 025 sweatshirts, polo shirts, T-shirts, caps, visors.
As a postcard collector, I am happy to see IBM still considers postcards and collectibles in general of sufficient value to maintain the trademark protections in place. That was not always the case.

At this point some readers may wish to continue following my mutterings can go on to How, I ended up Working on IBM Big Iron
while others may wish to jump ahead to Turning Big Iron to Gold - The Big Iron Holocaust.
Exit Back to the IBM-Collectables Gallery or returning to the IBM collectables Home page are also options.


All references to IBM and its registered trademarks are descriptive. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM, or colloquially, Big Blue) has registered and used numerous versions of the IBM trademark, their presentation here, along with all references to IBM and IBM collectibles are used descriptively, in good faith to describe the products and publications produced by IBM in the past and to simply tell this story. All usage here is based on the Fair Use Doctrine.
(c)2006 R.C.Bradlee all rights reserved
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