BRANDS are identification marks of products sold in trade. Their primary purposes are (I) to give buyers confidence in the articles they purchase, (2) to attach to the producer respon sibility for his products and (3) to assist producers in advertising their products. There are four chief classes of brands : (1) trade marks; (2) private brands; (3) store labels; (4) copyrights. (1) Trade marks (q.v.) are identification marks used by manufac turers. They may be emblems, pictures, diagrams, words, or other ingenious devices. They are usually protected by statute and registered by a government bureau. (2) Private brands are similar to trade marks but they are usually owned by wholesalers or other large distributors. The private brand may also be registered in a number of the leading commercial countries but such use usually depends upon the common law for protection. The private brand is placed upon goods which a wholesaler or jobber buys for dis tribution. These goods may be made to his order and according to his specifications or they may be bought in the open market. (3) Store labels are applied to goods of some particular store or chain of stores. As with private brands, these goods may be bought in the open market or made to the order of the merchant. (4) Copyright (q.v.) applies to a particular class of labels, especially to those used by industrial or commercial associations; e.g., the slogan "Save the Surface and You Save All" with the brush mark, is copyright in the United States. Members of the association which owns the copyright are permitted to use it in their adver tising under restricted conditions. This use of the copyright is entirely different from its ordinary use, which is to protect works of art, books, music, etc.
While most of the present legislation pertaining to brands is of recent origin, and while the practice of placing a brand on the article has been greatly stimulated in the last quarter century, the brand idea is as old as any known institution of civilization. It marked the beginning of a philosophy in business by which the producer openly assumed a responsibility for his product to the purchaser. Through all the ages this system has stood out in strik ing contrast with the well-known caveat emptor doctrine, which implied that profit could be derived only by an equal loss to the other party to the transaction. From a legal standpoint, the con sumer is protected by the brand as well as the manufacturer.
The earliest excavations showed that paving brick bore the mark of the manufacturer and also, in many instances, the mark of the slave who actually produced it. This is the same idea that still prevails with our use of the trade mark. The brick manufacturer wanted credit for his worthy product ; he also wanted to hold each slave responsible for his output and the mark was valuable to him in placing responsibility. During the period when the guilds of Europe were active, the use of the brand was very highly devel oped and some of the legislation governing the use of identification marks was as highly perfected and as intelligently employed as in modern commerce. Infringers, however, were harshly treated. In the textile industry the punishment for infringements was to have the right hand of the infringer severed. Infringing the brand of Rudesheimer wine by substitution of an inferior article was pun ishable by death. There was one aspect of the guilds' practice that has never been applied in recent times. That was a penalty for the failure of a member of the guild to affix the guild's identification mark to all his products. With the disappearance of the guilds from commerce the use of brands greatly declined and it was not until 1875 that Great Britain enacted its basic trade-mark law; 3o years later a similar statute was adopted in the United States.
In the last half century it has become the c ommon practice to brand even the most staple manufactured products. (H. E. A.)