To my knowledge Ludwig & Ludwig was named because of the two brothers...but it is logical to think that Ludwig & Ludwig would make it easier to tell the difference between the two companies...

Mike Curotto

Yes Ludwig & Ludwig was in fact named that way after the two brothers, William and Theobald. Not sure who Ludwig & Co pianos were named after though..... :D

Mike Curotto & Ludwig-dude - Thank you folks! Yeah, I know about the brothers. I was mentioning this because the piano company Ludwig & Co. was well established by the time the Ludwig brothers started their drum company and so legally they probably couldn’t have traded under the Ludwig Co. name as the drum company did later. Just a thought!

:)

Actually the drum company was later renamed Ludwig Drum Co....after the WFL years....so technically there would be no legal problem with Ludwig & Co.

Ludwig-dude - To clarify my assertion, in my original post I had prefaced what I was mentioning with “...in that time period.” (the first L&L years) because the Ludwig & Co. name was already being used at the time L&L started operations. Later, the piano company was no longer in business anymore, so of course there would be no problem with using the name as the drum company did. In the very beginning is what I’m writing about. Hope I’m being clear here.

The piano company in N.Y. was already very well known by the time the Ludwig brothers started their company.

Oh I just realized I was taking for granted that, as far as I know, today the trade name issue is usually a problem when both parties are in the same type of business as both Ludwig companies back then were (musical instrument manufacturing and sales). As an example, Gretsch won their case against Fender when in 1952 Fender introduced their first solid-body guitar as the Broadcaster. Fender was forced to change the name and they chose the Telecaster because Gretsch had their drums with the Broadkaster name on them already ,and as they say “the rest is history”.

I wonder who would have a catalog for the Ludwig Company :)

Ludwig Music House Inc

David

Far out.... always there for us !!

Thanks David

Thanks David! Cool retail catalogue! Of course “Retail” is a different field than “Manufacturing” and such. In business there is a clear distinction between the two.

Have you ever heard what happened to the “King Biscuit” trademark. The original radio show, “King Biscuit Time” in Helena Arkansas (the longest running blues radio show in the world), lost their battle with the 1970s rock radio show in NY the “King Biscuit Flower Hour”. So now the rock show guys who traded on the notoriety of the original own the rights to “King Biscuit” but they allow older show to still use their name but the King Biscuit Blues Fest in Helena had to change there name after about 25 years of the fest, because the rock show guys wanted too much money for the use of the King Biscuit name. KFFA radio in Helena did fight it but I don’t think they had deep enough pockets to win. Oh, I believe the "Flower Hour" guys also own the rights to the trademarks of the original Helena grocery company that sold the King Biscuit Flour that sponsored the original show in the early 1940s.

The Ludwig & Co piano stuff can be viewed at the arcade-museum dot com. Just search Ludwig in their data base. There is a story there about the 1918? lawsuit that the widow of the owner filed when although she didn’t live with him anymore she felt she should have received more of the estate. I’ll bet the Ludwig brothers were glad their trademark stuff was in order because this woman was very disgruntled, and seeing what happened a few years back with “King Biscuit” she may have tried to grab some of our guys drums.

Laughing H