Merchant Marks – their origin

June 24, 2009
Intellectual Property News and Interesting Facts

Merchants’ marks are as old as the sealings of the third millennium BC found in Sumer that originated in the Indus Valley. Impressions of cloth, strings and other packing material on the reverse of tags with seal impressions indicate that the Harappan seals were used to control economic administration and trade. Amphorae from the Roman Empire can sometimes be traced to their sources from the inscriptions on their handles. Commercial inscriptions in Latin, known as Tituli picti, appear on Roman containers used for trade.