Victor Talking Machine Co
1900 After William Barry Owen acquired the manufacturing rights for talking machines from the Lambert Typewriter Co, Eldridge R. Johnson, who had been making talking machines for the Gramophone Co, was left with a large factory, thousands of talking machines and no records to play on them. He filed suit in 1900 to be permitted to make records himself.
1901 Johnson used his victory to name the new record company he founded in 1901 as the Victor Talking Machine Company. Contrary to some sources, the Victor Talking Machine Company was never a branch or subsidiary of Gramophone, as Johnson's manufactory, which had been making talking machines for Berliner, was his own company with many mechanical patents that he owned, which patents were valuable in the patent pool agreement with Columbia. Thus, Victor and Columbia began making flat records in America, with UK Gramophone and others continuing to do so outside America, leaving Edison as the only major player in the making of cylinders, and Emile Berliner, the inventor of flat records, out of the business. All he was left with were the master recordings of his earlier records, which he took to Canada and reformed his Berliner label in Montreal, Nipper logo and all. Edison would soon join the flat record market with his diamond discs and their players.
1902 Eldridge Johnson of Victor Talking Machine Company acquired US rights to use the dog and gramophone as the Victor trademark, which began appearing on Victor records that year. UK rights to the logo were reserved by Gramophone. Nipper lived from 1884 to 1895 and is buried in England with a celebrated grave marker.