Why didn't Mr. Robbiati trademark the name "Atomic"?

Nobody knows.

Why did Mr. Robbiati call his coffee machines "Atomic"?

Mr. Giordano Robbiati stamped several of his coffee machines "Atomic", regardless of the model he was producing (to moka pots till automatic coffee machines).

Without speculating, this is what can be said.

Mr. Simon junior recalls that it was important for Mr. Robbiati that his machines be stamped with the name Atomic as he sold the license in Hungary. If this was orally mentioned or written on the license agreements is to this point of time unknown.

Mm. Notaras told me that Mr. Robbiati related the Atomic bombing in Japan with the end of the 2nd WW with positive feelings.

On the 8th of September 1943, Italy signed an armistice with the allied. But because Germans occupied the north of Italy until the end of the war, Milan, which was (and still is) an industrial town was severely bombed by the Americans and English. Mr. Robbiati's foundry blew up in the air. Of this sad event, 4 pictures remain.

Hiroshima was bombed on the 6th of August 1945, Nagasaki on the 9th.

Politically, in Italy, the wind of change was blowing.

After the referendum of the 2nd of June 1946 (the first time women voted), Italy became a Republic.

The rest of course is speculation... but it is understandable that for people who survived the 2nd WW, the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are related to positive memories back in Europe: the end of the bombings, of dictatorship, the beginning of democracy, peace.

A name which has less to do with the "atomic era" (in terms of nuclear optimism) ... but more with the celebration of peace... an explosion of happiness.

License...

Where did Mr. Robbiati license the manufacture of his coffee machines?

The (european) license to manufacture coffee machines according to the patent of the 18th of September 1946 (flathead) was sold in Hungary.
(That it was also sold in Switzerland is awaiting confirmation).

The license to manufacture coffee machines according to the patent of the 6th of June 1950 (roundhead) was sold in:
_ Germany,
_ United Kingdom,
_ Canada.

Brevetti Robbiati - Patent of the Round head coffee machine.

2nd design patent for a coffee machine covered with the "function" patent.




The first covered the Flathead coffee machine.


This one covered the Roundhead coffee machine.


It dates 6th of June 1950.

Worth noticing: The badge was NOT part of the design. It got crossed on the original pictures and Mr. Robbiati had to sign that he agrees with this being taken out of the patent. (see bottom of the 3rd picture)


This patent has been registered in Germany:

Brevetti Robbiati - Patent "Modello di Utilita"

This is an important document.

It describes the function of the coffee machine and dates 18th of September 1946.

This patent has been registered in many countries:

Austria:

Belgium:

France:

Hungary:

Netherlands:

UK:

Brevetti Robbiati - Patent of the flathead coffee machine

The first patent is one "Ornamentale" and thus describes the design of the coffee machine.

This is the coffee machine "flathead". It dated 14th of September 1946.

Here a scan of the flathead coffee machine manufactured by Brevetti Robbiati:

And here is the registration of the design in the USA:

How many patents for a coffee machine...

In Italy, there are 2 kinds of patents.

First, the "MODELO ORNAMENTALE":

The model or ornamental design patent protects the invention to a known object that gives "a special ornament (design objects), both in shape and for a particular combination of lines or colors." The ornamental design must be distinguished from the work of art protected by copyright. The patent office does not make a prior examination of the shapes and objects deposited, although it is important to attachdrawings or photos of excellent quality. However there must also meet the requirements of patentability as in other patents. This document is only the form ofprotection as well as it gives no idea that it is based. The ornamental design is a useful tool in the design, furnishing, jewelery, leather goods, in all those sectors oftheir success on the playing lines, the study of new models. The law allows you to filea single application with up to 100 variants of the same model, so, paying a little morein taxes, you may be able to protect its own project in all its possible variations.Unfortunately little is used to this type of protection, and to pay the damages are the companies that pay handsomely for the work of the designers and then they see theircounterfeit products, without any act swiftly against them. The ornamental design after the entry into force of the new law, has a duration of 25 years. To obtain a patent forornamental design, prepare the necessary documentation and pay the required fees.Please note that For models ornamental taxes can be divided into three five-year periods. Regulations: R.D. No 25.08.1940 1411.

And Second: the "MODELO DI UTILITA":

The patent for utility model is a type of protection is not recognized in all Member States, as many of them accept only the distinction between invention and Ornamental Model. The utility model, is in the form of a new industrial product, which gives the product a "special effectiveness or ease of application or employment." The difference between the utility model and invention (invention product) has been entrusted to a qualitative criterion (which sees the model as a "small inventions"). The difficulty to draw a clear line between invention and utility model creates a delicate problem of qualifying the inventor of the invention, at the time of application. On it you are talking a lot and was also produced a Green Paper from the Commission of European Communities of 19 July 1995 to try to unify the discipline. The utility model is normally granted in those states that provide for a substantive examination for inventions and is thus easier to obtain but also more difficult to protect, lasts 10 years, and is not renewable. The utility model is used to protect those objects (not processes) that represent a modification of existing objects that will increase the usefulness or ease of use in the object itself. By adopting it also protects the form of a product, which has its own specific features. Even in the utility model must be satisfied the requirements of novelty and industrial applicability intrinsic and extrinsic characteristic of the invention, but here the degree of innovation required may be lower even if the creative contribution and usefulness of the solution must necessarily be. Often choose between invention and utility model is not easy, and for this reason the law provides the opportunity to perform what is called a "dual filing" (Article 4 RD 25.08.1940 No 1411), or a deposit of contemporary same as an invention patent application is that as a utility model, letting the Italian Office of Patents and Trademarks to choose between one and the other solution. To obtain a utility model is necessary to prepare the necessary documentation and pay the required fees. Regulations: R.D. No 25.08.1940 1411.

Source: http://www.dirittoindustriale.com/home.html

Ceci n'est pas une...

This is not THE atomic coffee machine.

This is a coffee machine breveted by Mr. Giordano Robbiati and manufactured by Brevetti Robbiati in Milan.
+
It wears a badge with the trademarked name "Atomic". (btw a name Mr. Robbiati didn't trademark)
=
Mr. Robbiati didn't patent The atomic coffee machine.

Bruce Conner...

It is utmost surreal that a such iconic design item hadn't been researched... that so much "crap" has been said about it.

So for an easier further reading of my Blog, you need to do One thing: forget everything which has been said about it.

This is what i did about 2 years ago... and at each discovery since then, i felt like the "Bombhead" collage of Bruce Conner.

Meeting T. Simon - Son of Imre Simon

Things do get complicated on times... and incredibly easy...
or nothing happens for 40 years and suddenly so many things happen in a wink...

And all that remain is the good memories.

Finding Mr. Simon... took a while. I have spent many hours in front of my computer on hungarian websites, scrolling through pages of magyar... i don't understand magyar and the translator program from google does as if he knew...

Finally, i found on the museum of trade and tourism website a short description of Imre Simon. An exhibition on coffee machine was currently taking place, for a few more weeks. I asked the curator for the possibility of contacting Mr. Simon. The curator, who was a former professor in french literature, could speak my language fluently. She told me Mr. Simon is a busy man and she will do what she can.

I remember telling Mm. Stern that i found the son of Mr. Simon... she spontaneously gave away his nickname of former times (they hadn't met for the past 40 years). Both parents were business partners and belonged to the extended family.

How we did manage to all meet one day in Budapest to visit the exhibition guided by the curator a few days before the exhibition's end is a mystery... anyhow, i bought the day return train tickets for Mm. Stern and i in great expectation of what was coming ahead. I remember trying to reconstruct family trees on train tickets quite well... 3 hours leaves place for great conversation too!

The most emotional moment of my entire research happened... the reunion.

This i regard as the high point of my research. You can have the rarest coffee machines on earth and enjoy them... but, to my point of view, this was the most emotional moment and the moment i am the proudest about. The rest is about coffee machines...

We did go to the museum though. It was all there... At the closure of Szigony, Mr. Simon junior hoped to find someone who would be interested in this small hungarian "factory" and the museum showed interest.

I just show you 3 pictures... the rest will come in later posts.

The street sign of the Szigony Müszaki Vállalat:

The original table and tools of the small factory (where machines were assembled, polished etc.):

and one of my dreams (the other one is the Stella 105E) ... the Szigony electrical base!:

Another emotional moment was when i presented Mr. Simon junior with the enamel sign of his father's business. ( the enamel sign - part of my collection -  he kept in his hands during the whole time we visited the museum).

Here, happily remembering grinding coffee in his childhood with the family grinder which is now part of the collection of the museum:

Mr. Simon, if i can share what i know with the people interested, it is because you shared it with me... without boundaries or conditions... freely transmitting your knowledge to me.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Meeting J. Stern - Daughter of Mr. Desider Josef Stern.

The first thing i found were the patents... but they didn't help me further.

Youtube helped a lot http://www.youtube.com/user/dwron as well as the fact that an exhibition took place about Mr. Stern in Vienna in the literaturhaus between the 8th of March and the 27th of April 2007.


I contacted the secretary of the literaturhaus and after a few email exchange, could end up contacting the Stern family.


I felt for myself a bit like someone looking into the peep hole... it was a bit uncomfortable... i wouldn't know myself how i would react if someone completely foreign would contact me to say he wants to research about my family. A friend even told me "leave them alone". How would they react if they knew i was researching on the life of their father?


The curiosity won.


It was such a luck: the family was very open and willing to share what they had (the rest still stands in a few boxes... so there is plenty more to do).


There again a few months went by, exchanging emails and then i invited Mm. Stern to come for supper.


And what i became to see just blew up my mind... original patents, trademark registrations, pictures, leaflets...

A complete new side emerged from oblivion...


Names that were a mystery had documents, a story...


I was running between the kitchen ( we had goat cheese on fried pear with rucola salad and honey, then a asparagus risotto, and i can't remember the desert, my mind might have been already somewhere else) and the folder where the documents were stored. I simply couldn't believe it.


Both busy professionally and both hobby travelers, the meetings are either a spontaneous or a 3 month preparation event (sometimes to meet just a few minutes), one constant though, these are precious time and i enjoy every second of it and cherish their memories.


I have heard from a collector friend that it is very rare that family members share their history. I couldn't be more happy with the Stern family. I had contact with the 85 years old brother of Mr. Stern (i can't thank you enough for the book you gave me), and his grandson...  and regular meeting with Mm. Stern of course.

It was a weird feeling to have a folder full of priceless documents at my home and looking through it just gave me thirst to know more.


I like to have the feeling that maybe the family Stern also gained information about their parent through my research.


Anyhow, our path have met in a brilliant and colorful way and i am looking forward to meet again.


A heartfelt Thank to you, Judith.

Meeting A. Robbiati - Son of Giordano Robbiati and Coffee machine manufacturer

Last day of our trip to Milan, and one more "activity" on the program: a meeting with Franco Balzarotti.

It was a bit daunting, we agreed to meet at a train station in the suburbs of Milan.

"when you are at the train station, phone me"

Another 25 minutes of waiting... the mist was dissipating letting the sun come through in these early hours (and i was quite happy about that because it was at the beginning of february and quite cold).

Franco stepped out of the car... we shook hands... (sometimes it is a bit like a James Bond movie... meeting someone for the first time in the middle of nowhere on a train station with only basic language knowledge)...

and Franco had the great idea to bring a friend of his who could speak english!!!

I sat in the car... feeling a bit young (32) among these experienced collectors (60+)...

Franco starts the car: "We go to Robbiati".

Blank.

This was not part of the program.

Meeting Mr. Robbiati.

That meant, being able to ask any question to the manufacturer himself...

I didn't have much time... we had to catch a flight in the afternoon.

Franco parked the car... rang... an old man comes out... " ( he shortly made me think of my grandfather... same thick shirt under a thick jumper, the jacket and the scarf he kept during all our meeting. Hands and face of someone who worked hard all his life.)

We all sat in the car, Franco driving, Mr. Robbiati on his right side and me and the friend translator at the back.

Franco said in italian something like: "i have to introduce you to our friend Mik".

Mr. Robbiati answered with a smile on his face: "he is your friend, not mine".

Unforgettable. (exactly my kind of humor... later in the conversation: i forwarded greetings from Mm. Notaras to him... and with the same smile and in one breath he said: "oh, she is still alive".)

We drove to a café and spent the next hours talking...

I had brought my book of leaflets on which Mr. Robbiati was pointing out details, the patents that his father registered (some of them he was not aware of) and my timeline-chart, my first attempt to retrace the history of these coffee machines.

I had unfortunately or fortunately... or let me put it like this. There is a time for hobby, and a time for real life. I had to catch a plane a go back to real life. C'est la vie. But these hours, i will never forget.

This encounter was so surreal that, as it happened, all apprehension was gone. Only 3 weeks after, by looking at the pictures and the films i made and re-listening to the recorded conversation, could i realize and smile in amazement.

For me, it was the end of a journey... after having met the daughter of Mr. Stern in Vienna (Stella espresso machines), and the son of Mr. Simon in Budapest (Szigony Müszaki Vállalat), i could at last meet Mr. A. Robbiati (son of Giordano Robbiati but above all, manufacturer of the coffee machines i was interested in)... the loop was complete.

Since that meeting, i have kept contact with Franco... we make ourselves little "presents" ... he gives me a business card from Brevetti Robbiati, a spare letter paper, a spare badge... i send him all the documents i found, patents, business registration, my book...

Franco is very kind with me and has been so since we met. It is a great pleasure to have had the chance to get to know him and to converse with him now on regular basis.

A lot of what i know is thanks to him... and the fact he made me meet Mr. Robbiati, is something i will be in debt all my life. He kindly tells me when he is meeting Mr. Robbiati next, so i have time to forward my questions... and i usually get the replies very soon. It is a priviledge and a honor.

Thank you Franco!!!

And Thank you Mr. Robbiati... until we meet again.

Good night story...

The kind of story, when you hear it, you might as well stop everything you did on that day and go to bed to sleep over it.

If you are fan of "i bought a Brevetti Robbiati coffee machine for $5 on a churchyard sale"... you might like this one:

May i introduce you to Franco Balzarotti, a great collector of coffee machine (800+) living in the region of Milan.

Like every weekend, Franco goes to flea markets to search for the rare pearl. Between tables full of antiques (i mean as much antique art as antique rubbish), an old man sit in front of a small table. On this table, only Brevetti Robbiati coffee machines... as new. Franco starts a conversation with the seller and it appears that the seller knows the machines very well. The seller was no other than the son of Mr. Giordano Robbiati, who worked with his father all his life before taking over the business as his father retired!!!

That was the beginning of a great friendship between them.

Industria argentina... anyone?

I saw this coffee machine in the collection of Joan Ramirez and i was very intrigued.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52981087@N02/
http://www.joan.4mes1.org/index.php

I have since then own 4 different ones... and i am still intrigued.

All mine were with black bakelite handles... but each one had a different badge.

There again, your help is needed... i am addressing myself to you, argentine people!!!

Ain't got the choice but to enjoy its aesthetic and go to bed... this coffee machine is one of my favorite indeed.

If only coffee machines could talk...