atomic variations

variations on a theme- atomic coffee machines manufactured in Italy, Austria, Hungary, The United Kingdom, India, China: c. 1946-2009.

 

The Atomic Coffee Maker was designed by Mr Giordano Robbiati of Milan, Italy around 1946. Over the years various manufacturers in separate countries produced coffee machines based on Robbiati's patented designs and also labeled as 'Atomic' machines. Over time the Atomic trademark became the descriptive name of the distinctive shape/design of the machine- in the same manner as the trademarks 'escalator', 'bakelite' and 'hoover' became generic descriptive terms through common use in everyday language. Obviously in the case of the Atomic coffee maker the product is far more obscure than the ubiquitous 'escalator' however the trademark principles are identical. This process is called 'genericisation'.

 

Trade mark owners seek to avoid using or allowing others to use a trademark in a purely descriptive way, an example of this would be Johnson & Johnsons's ongoing defense of the 'Band Aid' trade mark. By encouraging other manufacturers to use the term 'sticking plaster' instead of 'band aid' J&J have managed to prevent their mark being declared generic and invalid in the USA by constantly threatening to litigate any company that describes their 'sticking plasters' as 'band-aids'.

 

Ensuring a trademark does not become the generic name of the goods it is applied to is especially important when an inventor creates a new device: he or she should take special care to create a new name that describes the invention alongside a separate trade name (trademark) which signifies the origin of the device. In the case of the Atomic coffee maker this did not happen: the Atomic trademark was used as the name for the novel invention as well as a trademark for the manufacturer. This was further compounded by separate manufacturers using the same name to describe/trademark their ATOMIC machines.

 

For a trademark to be valid it must be distinctive of a particular source or manufacturer- this is why in law a trademark is known as a 'badge of origin'. Registration of a trademark does not guarantee validity under law: it is up to the owner of the mark to pursue any alleged infringements. In such a case the validity of a mark can be called into question and the mark can be de-resgistered. In addition use of the trademark in a descriptive manner is not use of the mark as a trademark and does not constitute infringement.

 

In print and other media most of the coffee machines pictured above are almost universally described as ATOMIC coffee makers (and nothing else), regardless of the manufacturer. Today the ATOMIC name cannot act as a 'badge of origin' as it does not indicate a particular source- and therefore it cannot act as a legitimate trademark in relation to coffee machines of this (atomic) design. No trader should be granted a perpetual monopoly on the descriptive name of this type of distinctive coffee maker.

 

A good example of this reality is the Otto/Otso machine pictured above: this machine has never been labeled as an Atomic coffee machine by the manufacturer, and it is a product of the 21st Century- not the Twentieth. Unlike all the other machines pictured here it is made of steel not alloy. Yet upon its release into the market around 2009 it was immediately described as an 'atomic coffee maker' by ordinary people- all over the world- using the Atomic word to signify the shape and form of the machine. That is to say: using ATOMIC as a name, and never as a 'badge of origin'. And it is no wonder why: the Otso machine clearly belongs in this collection of Atomic Type Coffee Machines- if it does not look just like an Atomic: what on Earth does it look like?

 

The Ikon Exports Collection, 2011

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