Small Business Reading Room

Monday, February 07, 2005

What's in a Name? - Amazing Variety

The United States Patent and Trademark Office administers more than just the items in its name. By sheer luck I ran across a page on the USPTO website that lists a number of interesting registrations that various governments administer in the US.

Some items they list information about include:
Alcohol Labels

FCC Broadcast Call Signs

Universal Product Code (UPC)

Domain Names

Fastener Quality Act Insignia

FDA Product Codes

International Standard Book Number (ISBN)

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

Land Patents

Native American Tribal Insignia

And More...

The identifiers page is an interesting look at how deeply involved in our affairs the government really is.

posted by Larry at 1:41 PM - permalink 2 comments

2 Comments:

There's some nice information available through there.

I search through the patents frequently, but I don't recall having seen that page before. Thanks for pointing it out.

I do confess that I got a chuckle out of this warning, which comes up when you try to click on most of those links, especially since most of the appear to be other government agencies:

"You are exiting the United States Patent and Trademark Office Web Server

We have provided a link to this site because it has information that may be of interest to our users. The United States Patent and Trademark Office does not necessarily endorse the views expressed or the facts presented on this site. Further, the United States Patent and Trademark Office does not endorse any commercial products that may be advertised or available on this site."

Thanks.

By William Slawski, at 6:09 PM

Bill:

You are right, it is funny how disjointed the Federal Government is online. But hey, I would not endorse the efforts of other agencies either :)
I understand you can get display copies of patents from private entrepreneurs on E-Bay.

By Larry, at 8:53 AM