Hi All. I am wondering about perfins in general. When a pattern is created, I understand that they are all registered, but, who are they registered with? I know that the first perfin invention by Joseph Sloper was registered with the patent office, but, as the different countries around the globe started producing these, where were the individual patterns registered? Were they registered at a patent office, or with the GPO of any given country? Thanks a lot.
I got some answers from another forum, so, I will share them here as well. They are the following:
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In the US and UK, it was the process of "perforating" or the Perforating Machine that was "patented". I suppose that one could say that certain perfin patterns were "registered" with certain companies, institutions or government agencies, as they would require approval by various boards. Such as Colleges, Universities and governmental offices. Given the German policy of meticulous record keeping, it is possible that such a "registry" of German perfin patterns could exist. The Russian Post Office probably had such as record as most Russian Post Offices used perfins.
BF Cummins Perforator Company had a "certificate of identification" that it issued with the various early perfin patterns. This certificate was a "selling policy", as Cummins did not keep a record of individual pattern. It is unknown if the American Perforator Company kept any such records.
Individual perfin patterns were not "registered" with any government agency. Joseph Sloper kept records of the patterns he used to produce various patterns for his customers. Sloper's perforators were owned by Sloper's Works (so I guess you could say they were "registered" with Slopers. Most perfins of England were made by Mailing Companies that perfinned the stamps for the customers. The customer did not own the perforator. These perforator companies charged the customer a "fee" over and above the cost of the postage for the process.
