Have you noticed that the word "Monopol" is also incorporated into the Witten steel trademark? "Monopol" was then also a "Trademark" for a better-quality barrel steel by that company. There are no other markings that hint to Belgium. Trademarks were not internationally protected as they are now.
Why would a German maker use the French word for monopoly?
The trademarks were protected. They were protected under the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property of March 20, 1883.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Conve...racting_partiesThe Patent Laws of All Nations: United States, C. R. Brodix, 1886
Article VIII. A trade-name shall be protected in all the countries of the Union, without the necessity of registration, whether it form part or not of a trade or commercial mark.http://books.google.com/books?id=2JcLAAA...883&f=falsePete
