Catalogue description Board of Trade: Patent Designs and Trade Marks Office: Manchester Branch and successors: Representations of Trade Marks, Cotton Classes

By the rules issued under the Registration of Trade Marks Act 1875, trade marks for cotton goods in classes 23, 24 and 25 (for cotton yarn, and sewing cotton not on spools or reels and sewing cotton on spools or reels; cotton piece goods of all kinds such as cotton shirtings and long cloth; and other cotton goods such as cotton lace, braids and tapes) were specially treated. An office was opened in Manchester for the exhibition of all devices, marks etc. used in the cotton trade. Anyone using any cotton mark was required to send to the office one master representation and four copies of it; a number were held in the Manchester Office and the others were forwarded to London for administrative purposes as well as inclusion in their copy of the register.

Under the rules a mark could be classified as an 'A' mark if it was considered to be a trade mark within the meaning of the Act or as a 'B' mark if it was not. A 'B' mark offered less protection than an 'A' mark.

Applications received were given an 'M' number for internal use only. Where an application was accepted for Class 'A', an official number was issued from the London office until 1889 when a block of numbers, 100,001 to 150,000, was assigned to the Manchester office and they assumed responsibility for their issue. The cotton marks as such ceased to exist as a separate series on the passing of the Trade Marks Act 1938, when a single series of representations resumed. Part of the block of numbers assigned to the Manchester office in 1889 were never used.