One hundred fourteen years ago today, a marque made its mark in the annals of trademark history. On December 2, 1902, Olds Motor Works was granted its first registration for the OLDSMOBILE mark for “vehicles.” Purchased by General Motors in 1908, the OLDSMOBILE name endured for more than a century as one of the country’s most recognizable brands. At the time that the OLDSMOBILE division was shuttered by General Motors in 2004, it was the oldest surviving American automobile marque, and the original trademark registration for the OLDSMOBILE mark was still in force. However, because U.S. trademarks require continuous use in order to remain valid, Registration No. 39405 was ineligible for renewal and was cancelled in 2015.

By Krzysztof Marek Wlodarczyk (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.