Sixty years ago, on July 31, 1956, the Volkswagen “VW” logo was first registered as a U.S. trademark for “vehicles-namely, automobiles and trucks, air craft, boats; and parts of and accessories for automobiles-namely, radiators, direction indicators, windshield defrosters, anti-dazzle appliances, windshield wipers, shock adsorbers [sic], brakes, and baggage racks.” The registration, No. 631,649, was renewed in 1976 but is now expired, having been replaced by the slightly revised version of the “VW” logo in U.S. Registration No. 790,959, which was first registered in 1965 and is still in use today.

By Sicnag (1966 Volkswagen Type 2 T1 Deluxe Microbus) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.