DRGM & DRP

The acronym D.R.G.M. with or without punctuation stands for Deutsches Reichsgebrauchsmuster, meaning that the design or function of an item was officially registered inside all of the German states and not only locally registered as it was the case before the introduction of centralized registration. Many people quote this acronym as standing for Deutsches Reich Gebrauchsmuster, which is grammatically wrong and omits the letter 's' after Reich. This results in shifting the weight of pronunciation on 'Deutsches Reich' alone, but this acronym has nothing to do with the Third Reich as many sellers want to imply so to catch the attention of certain 'collectors'.

D.R.G.M. registration was introduced in 1891 and if you are dating items you should hold in mind that even during Allied occupation up until 1949, registration procedures remained untouched and still used the D.R.G.M. registration documents, which of course explains why D.R.G.M. marks can be found on products manufactured up until 1952 as the registration itself was valid for three years. As of the end of October 1952, all registrations were marked with 'Deutsches Bundesgebrauchsmuster' (D.B.G.M.) or simply with 'Gebrauchsmuster' or 'Gebrauchsmusterschutz', see below.

As already noted, the D.R.G.M. registration offered basic copyright protection for three years and included the right to indicate the item status by marking the registered items with the D.R.G.M. acronym. It was left to the registration owner to include the registration number as the D.R.G.M. marking alone was the element with legal character. The result of such registration (the form of protection) was called Gebrauchsmusterschutz.

D.R.G.M. registered products were protected either for their way of intended use or design only and this did not include patent protection. Patent rights were secured by applying for a Deutsches Reichspatent (D.R.P.), so even if many people use the term 'D.R.G.M-Patent' it is factually wrong. The reason for this mix-up was that the D.R.G.M. registration in colloquial language was also known as 'kleines Reichspatent' which stands for 'small Imperial patent' but was meant as 'poor people's patent' and made fun of the fact that many manufacturers could not afford the fees needed to register a full patent. One should consider that German patent registration fees (as was openly criticized during the year 1906) were two and a half times higher than in England - and 36 (!!!) times higher than in the US.

Unsure of the origins of this item, but it appears to be a smoking collectible, possibly an ashtray or a cigar holder.

There is a date of 1918 under the DRGM makers stamp and then the number 601748 with a Roman numeral II.