About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.

Company Status



Design Protection and Company Status Marks


This is very much a work in progress and I would be most appreciative of any suggestions additions or corrections.

They can be emailed to me at maverickatlarge@hotmail.com

All help acknowledged.


For the bulk of all company status and suffix types, the best place to go is the Wikipedia page on such things;


Other terms more commonly encountered or outside the wikipedia page's coverage are as follows;


Assignee - Term for a holder of patent rights assigned to them by someone else, usually the inventor
Assignor - Patent term for someone, usually an inventor who assigns the rights to another
Breveté - French for  patented
Bté.SGDG - French; Breveté Sans Garantie du Gouvernement meaning patented without State guarantee
© - Copyright/Copyrighted; should be followed by a date
Cie. - French; Compagnie or company
Co. - Company
Co. Ltd. - Company [of] Limited [Liability]
Compagnie - French for company
Corp. - Corporation
DBA - Doing Business As...[as prefix to trade mark, brand]
DBGM - Deutsches Bundesgebrauchsmuster Markt; German State Protection Mark, initial three year protection, which can be extended for another three to a total of six, instigated in 1949 and replaceing DRGM because of the three year reach, not all products prior to October 1952 will have the DBGM, some retaining DRGM
DEP / Dep. - (1) Deponiert; German for registered or copyright
DEP / Dep. - (2) Depose; French for registered
Dep./Ges. - Deponiert Geschutz; German for protected against copying
Depose - French for registered
DRGM - Deutsches Reichsgebrauchsmuster Markt; German State Protection Mark, initial three year protection, which can be extended for another three to a total of six, some less ethical sellers will leave the second 's' out writing it as 'Deutsches Reich Gebrauchsmuster Markt' hoping to lead to the buyer into believing the item is from or of the Nazi era
DRP - Deutsche Reich Patent; German State Patent, from June 1877 to the present
Fabrikmarke - German for factory mark
Gegr. -  Gegrundet; German for established/founded, with a date
Ges. Gesch. - Gesetzlich Geschutzt; German for legally-protected/patented or; copyrighted
GmbH - Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftpflicht, or Haftung; Standard German legal company constitution. Sometimes abbreviated to; Ges.Mbh.
IA - Industria Argentina; made/manufactured/produced in Argentina
Inc. - Incorporated [company]
Industria Argentina - Made/manufactured/produced in Argentina
Industria Paraguaya - Made/manufactured/produced in Paraguay
Int. - International
IP - Industria Paraguaya; made/manufactured/produced in Paraguay
LLC - Limited Liability Company
Ltd. - Limited [liability company]
Marque de Fabrique - French for trade mark
Marque Déposée - French for registered trademark
Mod.Dep. - French; Modèle déposé, meaning registered design
Modèle Déposé - French for registered design
Musterschutz - German for copyright
NV - Naamloze Vennootschap; Belgian/Dutch/Netherlands company constitution
OAO - Otkrytolye Aktsionernoye Obshchestvo; Russian company constitution
(P) - ‘Protected’; unique to the 'Giant' mark of New York-based Hong Kong-production importers, a meaningless mark as it’s found on blatant piracies!
Pat. - Patented
Pat.App. - Patent Applied-for
Pat.No. - Patent Number; followed by a numeral
Patt.  / Patt.No. - Pattern [or] Pattern Number; followed by a numeral or letter-numeral code
PLC / Plc. - Public-Liability Company or Corporation
® / R - Registered Design
Reg. - Registered;...in some way? Often signifying; a limited period of protection
Reg.Des. - Registered Design; often followed by a numeral, a limited period of protection
SA - Sociedad Anonima (Brazil, Spain), Societe Anonyme (France, Romania) or Spolka Akeyjna (Poland); company constitution
Schutzmarke - German for trademark
SGDG - French; Sans Garantie du Gouvernement meaning without State guarantee
SpA - Societa per Azioni; Italian company constitution
SRL - Societa Reponsibilita Limitata; Italian company constitution, limited liability
ST - Sole Trader
Ste. - French abbreviation for Societe or Society
TA - Trading As...[as prefix to trade mark, brand]
TM - Trade Mark / Trademark
TM - Trade Marked; preceded by a trademark, trade name, logo or logotype
Vtrb. - Vertrieb (German) marketing
W.Ger - West Germany (1948-1991)
W.Germany - West Germany (1948-1991)
ZUP - Zashrzezony Urdedzie Patentowym (Polish) Pattern Registered at the Patent office


Notes on Above

Patent dates:  US toys from 1860 and German toys produced after 1890 usually bear patent dates along with any patent number. These days the date may be found after the Copyright '(C)' symbol

US Format: In the US the LLC designation is classed as an 'abbreviation' if written thus - L.L.C.; or a 'designation' if written thus - LLC.
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