TESS is a great place to start. TESS stands for Trademark Electronic Search System, and is a database of registered trademarks in the United States. It is not fool proof - they admit themselves that not all trademarks are there, and not all information is current - but it can set you on the right path. It's not the easiest site to navigate, so I'll do a step by step with screen shots.
This data base is of course only helpful if you have a label to work with - but we'll assume you do.
For this example I'm going to use an item from my dear friend RetroThreadz shop:
Here we have a fabulous coat, with the label F.A.I. It's a very classic style, which makes it hard to pinpoint era just looking at the outside, but we have a label, with an R.N and fabric content (I'll come to what that means later on - lets stick to TESS for now)
So off we go to TESS. The first screen you come to will look like this (click on any picture to enlarge):
Click on "Search" which will bring you to this screen:
So off we go to TESS. The first screen you come to will look like this (click on any picture to enlarge):
Click on "Search" which will bring you to this screen:
On the next screen enter the text of your label excluding any punctuation, like so:
Hit return and you'll be brought to a page of results - we're lucky, there are only 35, and only one matches our label exactly - no. 31:
So now we can click on this result, and find all the information available on this website:
So from this we know:
| Word Mark | F.A.I. |
| Goods and Services | (CANCELLED) IC 025. US 039. G & S: Women's and Girls Shirts and Skirts; Women's and Girls Rainwear-Namely, Raincoats and Slickers; Women's Hats, Scarves and Gloves, Hosiery, Slippers, Belts and Shoes. FIRST USE: 19770200. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19770200 |
| Mark Drawing Code | (1) TYPED DRAWING |
| Serial Number | 73428745 |
| Filing Date | June 6, 1983 |
| Current Filing Basis | 1A |
| Original Filing Basis | 1A |
| Published for Opposition | June 12, 1984 |
| Registration Number | 1292999 |
| Registration Date | September 4, 1984 |
| Owner | (REGISTRANT) Frederick Atkins Inc. CORPORATION NEW YORK 1515 Broadway New York NEW YORK 10036 |
| Assignment Recorded | ASSIGNMENT RECORDED |
| Attorney of Record | Granville M. Brumbaugh |
| Prior Registrations | 1080353 |
| Type of Mark | TRADEMARK |
| Register | PRINCIPAL |
| Live/Dead Indicator | DEAD |
| Cancellation Date | January 23, 1991 |
So this label was first used in 1977, and was canceled in 1991. That gives us a nice tight range in which the jacket could have been made.
So now - armed with this information - we can start to look at style and construction .
But that's Part 2.....
:)
