Thornwood, NY—Carl Zeiss AG announced a name change to Zeiss, a name already well established in general language usage in many countries when referring to both the logo and the company.
Carl Zeiss is the name of the company’s founder and part of the company name Carl Zeiss AG, however, the brand has been called Zeiss for a long time, and to create consistency across its brand communications, Zeiss will now be used. As a result, Zeiss will also label its lenses differently: Carl Zeiss will become Zeiss.
The company operates in many product areas—from microscopes and measuring machines to eyeglass lenses, binoculars and camera lenses—and throughout the divisions, the label Zeiss can be found on products in most markets and product areas. The lenses have, for the most part, been the exception for historical reasons. The company now sees the decision to also label all lenses Zeiss as an opportunity to retell the history of the brand name.
“Carl Zeiss Jena” appeared in the first trademark of Zeiss, and as early as the 1920s various subsidiaries used variations of this lens-shaped label. An example is Zeiss Ikon AG, in which Carl Zeiss held a majority interest. After WW II, Carl Zeiss employees, who had been ordered by the American forces to relocate to southern Germany, established the Zeiss Opton factory in Oberkochen, Baden-Württemberg. It also, like Zeiss Ikon, adapted the trademark.
Beginning in 1953, Carl Zeiss Oberkochen and VEB Carl Zeiss Jens developed independently of one another. Carl Zeiss Oberkochen called itself Carl Zeiss, removing the word “Jena” from the lens-shaped logo. This led to worldwide lawsuits to clarify the usage of the name Carl Zeiss, the trademark on the lens, as well as other trademarks and product names of Carl Zeiss Jena in the Federal Republic of Germany. It became the longest court case in the history of East Germany.
The London Agreement, reached in 1971 after nearly 18 years of litigation, stated all logos, trademarks and company names of Carl Zeiss in East and West should clearly be distinguishable from each another. In addition, as had already happened with “Jena,” the first name “Carl” was removed from the logo of the West German company. At the end of the 1970s, the word Zeiss was included in a square, and in order to clearly differentiate itself from Jena, West Germany was added as the designation of origin.
However, the reunification of both Carl Zeiss companies in 1991 was also intended to raise the visibility of the common logo. In 1993–1994, a new combined word and design mark was created with the curve of the lens incorporated in the logo, which is in use today.
In 2011–2012, a work group was established to investigate the current identity and positioning of Zeiss, and to make recommendations for further developing the brand. The result is a range of brand management principles that will govern the future use of the Zeiss brand, including the consistent use of the Zeiss logo in all labeling on all products. As a result, the company will use only the Zeiss logo on the front ring of lenses for all future product families.
The changeover for the lenses will take place at the family level: existing lens families will not be changed after the fact, but future families will be labeled with Zeiss. The first family to introduce this change is the Zeiss Touit lenses. zeiss.com