Hi all,
Just wanted to thank everyone again for their input on the medical
alert jewelry designs. FYI, the cadeucus (twin snakes wound around
winged staff) is often marketed to US medical personnel as a
indication at graduation or nursing “pinning” ceremonies that the
wearer is in the medical profession. That addiciation between the
caduceus and the medical profession started with the US military
back in WWI or WW2 in the surgeon’s corps.
I do know that the Medic-Alert trademarked emblem came about in 1956
a few years before the US AMA’s star of life or “Universal Emergency
Medical Symbol”. I did some web research and the first mention of
the AMA symbol in medical literature was back in 1964. Of course,
since the AMA is still insisting there is no such symbol (I believe
there is an avoidance issue of endorsing products after a 20
million dollar lawsuit where they were going to officially endorse
Sunbeam electronics), until I can get my hands on the actual
documents declaring that the design is copyright free, I’m going the
circular route by doing a design loosely based on the “star of life”
whose trademark IS still active but was based on the AMA’s
mysteriously unidentified “Universal Emergency Medical Symbol”.
BTW, the star of life can be used to identify EMS personnel with a
blue background in the star.
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=73033491
Hugs,
Tina MCDonald