“Own Name,” “No Name,” and “The Plague of Fancy Names”

Abstract

Within popular narratives of the nineteenth century, branded commercial remedies—with their hyperbolic advertisements—are often cast in an unsavory light. This article reconsiders branded medicines and draws on scholarship from business historians to show that brands in the British marketplace were redefined during the late nineteenth century as a result of trademark legislation, particularly the Trade Marks Registration Act 1875. Concentrating on advertisements and commentary from the trade and professional press between c. 1875 and c. 1920, this article explores how trademarks were used as a regulatory and communicative device within a chain of distribution. Pharmacists, however, were wary of the “plague of fancy names,” as The Pharmaceutical Journal wrote on May 12, 1906, and many retail chemists did not want their own name usurped by a manufacturer’s brand within their own retail space. Mindful of this concern, manufacturers and wholesalers began to offer a range of “No Name” or “Own Name” preparations. This article will highlight that some brands could hold great value in certain local areas, but it also draws on the archives of Burroughs Wellcome & Co. to outline trademark legislation’s impact on the sale and understanding of commercial remedies on a global scale.