International Wool Mark Registered

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30364, 13 February 1964, Page 11

International Wool Mark Registered

The International Wool Secretariat’s quality symbol for wool goods—the cornerstone of the .secretariat’s world-wide prom.otion campaign during the ' next five years—has been registered.

The. mark is aimed at. creating a distinct and discriminating demand for virgin wool to free wool from its association with wool-type fibres and consequently from the downward pressure of synthetic prices.

The symbol, which can be applied only to pure virgin wool products, will be administered. exclusively by ' the I.W.S. Application for registration has been made in 87 countriesThe symbol is a result of two years’ intensive research and design work throughout the world by I.W.S. staff and advisers. It was chosen as the official woolmark by a panel of six international design experts who gathered in London under the chairmanship of Sir Gordon Russell; one of Britain’s foremost design experts. Mem,bens of the panel considered 86 symbols submitted by 13 designers from many parts of the world. Their choice was a design submitted by an Italian artist, Francesco Saroglia. of Milan. Official registration of the mark ends one of' the most complex stages in its concep-tion-r-a world-wide. search to ascertain that no other trade symbol with which it might be confused was already in use. The findings were such that all traditional sheep's head or cloth symbols had to be discarded. The new symbol marks the the textile industry.- It is the'

first time that specific protection has been extended to pure virgin wool. It has the promotional support of the 1.W.5., which will licence the mark to manufacturers whose products meet the required quality specifications. In the'first phase of introduction seven countries will get the woolmark this year. They are Britain, the United States, France, West Germany, Holland, Belgium, and Japan. The initial aim of the woolmark is to indicate that goods bearing the symbol are of pure new wool and contain no other fibre apart from, in certain cases, a small percentage for decoration only. Next year there will be additional requirements covering performance characteristics of woolmarked goods.