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Re: [OM] Carl Zeiss lenses?

Subject: Re: [OM] Carl Zeiss lenses?
From: "John A. Lind" <jlind@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 13:04:48 +0000
At 14:22 8/11/99 , John Hudson wrote:
>Has this anything to do with the two competing Houses of Zeiss .... the one
>in the former Federal Republic of Germany and the other in the former DDR?
>
>jh

Ummm, I doubt it.  There were trademark issues that had to be resolved and
this dragged on but Carl Zeiss Oberkochen eventually won out.  There
finally was an agreement in London in 1971 over use of the "Zeiss"
trademark(s).  I do not know how far-reaching this went in terms of global
marketing.  In the interim years lenses in the FRG were usually marked Carl
Zeiss Stuttgart (very early on the Opton name was used also) and in the DDR
the company was called VEB Carl Zeiss Jena.

Following a U.S. Supreme Court decision (about the time of the London
agreement), The East German products manufactured by the Jena firm were
marketed in the United States only under the "aus Jena", "Jenoptik", or
"Jenoptik Jena" trademark. The original "Carl Zeiss Jena" trademark
appeared on East German products sold in the former communist block
nations, and in Canada, England, and some other countries. To add to the
confusion, in some countries both trademarks were recognized. However, both
East and West continued to employ the name "Carl Zeiss" throughout the
postwar era until the reunification of 1990 wherever possible (when both
CZ's were pulled back together again).

If it had been made by the "Jena" Carl Zeiss it would very likely be marked
with "Jenoptik" if it was sold in the U.S. or with a "Carl Zeiss Jena" in
other countries where exclusive rights to the Zeiss trademarks didn't exist
indicating it came from Jena.  As I understand it, even if it were exported
to the U.S. for sale through Japan it would have to abide the the U.S.
court decisions on the trademarks.

Someone else may be able to shed even more light on some of the trademark
use outside the U.S.

-- John

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