Hi Steve,
Perhaps the best online reference for this material can be found on Ed Covington's highly informative website at
http://www.frognet.net/~ejcov/To quote directly from his material he writes:
"During the court litigations of 1893 the general counsel for the General Electric Company was Frederick P. Fish. It was he who also suggested the name MAZDA for the newly introduced tungsten filament lamp. It carries the trademark No. 77,779, having been registered May 3, 1910. The trademark MAZDA was not the name of a lamp but rather the mark of a service. The word MAZDA was first used on lamps on Dec 21, 1909. It's believed that MAZDA lamps made from that date to about May of 1911 utilized sintered tungsten filaments, whereas those made after May 1911 utilized drawn tungsten filaments. Westinghouse used the name MAZDA starting in 1912. The name was not used by the General Electric Company after 1945."
Incidentally the Mazda brand name was not just used in the USA. You probably know that GE was formed from a merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston companies, but prior to this date TH operated divisions in the UK (BTH) and in France (FTH). Neither were included in the merger which formed GE, but they did continue a close relationship with GE afterwards which involved sharing patents between all three companies, co-operation on equipment design etc, and the use of the Mazda name universally.
After GE discontinued use of the Mazda name in 1945 it continued to be used overseas, right up to the present day. BTH ultimately became part of Thorn EMI, who continued to use the Mazda brand name on all domestic lamps sold in the UK and British colonies etc. In 1991 GE took over Thorn Lighting's lamps operation and consequently still today, all GE lamps sold in the UK for the domestic market appear under the GE-Mazda trade name - simply because the GE name is almost totally unknown here and it does not have a good brand image.
In France, FTH later became Compagnie des Lampes which sold its products under the Mazda name until 1983 when it was taken over by Philips. Even today, lamps made by Philips are frequently sold in France and Belgium under the Mazda name because it is better respected there.
Thus today the current situation is that GE owns the Mazda name in the UK and former British Colony countries (except Canada), and Philips has the rights to the name for the rest of the world. For a brief period Sylvania owned the rights to use the Mazda name in Japan but Philips also acquired that in its 1993 takeover of the Japanese Kondo-Sylvania operations. It is not actually used there any more though.
Hope this provides some useful info for you and be sure to check out Ed Covington's website!
Best regards,
James.
