Mirado Pencil Configuration
Trademark: Mirado Pencil
First Used: 1905
Registered: 1906
Current Owner: Sanford, L.P. (Paper Mate) [1]
Trademark Type: non-traditional trademark; trade dress; configuration mark
Primarily Associated With: metallic tips for lead-pencils [2]
Brief (and likely incomplete) History [3]:
For generations of American students and office workers, the MIRADO® pencil [4] was a familiar No. 2 pencil, recognizable by its distinctive metal ferrule featuring a red band contrasting with yellow or gold surfaces (unlike the green-and-yellow ferrule of TICONDEROGA® pencils). But the Mirado brand actually began under a different name more than a century ago.
The Eagle Pencil Company was founded in New York City in 1856 by the Berolzheimer family. Eagle grew into one of the country's major pencil manufacturers, eventually producing pencils, pens, erasers, mechanical pencils, and other writing products.
In 1905, Eagle released the Mikado pencil featuring the red-banded ferrule. The word “Mikado” was historically used as a title for the emperor of Japan. The Japanese-inspired name was not unusual for pencils at the time. After the introduction of the yellow Koh-I-Noor pencil in Europe during the late 19th century, yellow pencils became associated with high-quality graphite from Asia, and manufacturers began introducing similarly styled pencils with names suggesting an Asian connection.
In December 1941, shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States' entry into World War II, Eagle replaced the Mikado pencil name with the Mirado pencil name. The timing was remarkably close: Eagle's later trademark registration for the MIRADO trademark identifies December 10, 1941 as its first use date, just three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Pencil historian Henry Petroski has attributed the name change to the attack, although the surviving trademark records do not themselves state Eagle's reason for making the change.
MIRADO pencils continued through several changes to Eagle's corporate identity and ownership. In 1969, the Eagle Pencil Company became the Berol Corporation. Empire Pencil Corporation acquired Berol in 1986, and the business was later acquired by Sanford in 1995 as part of Newell's growing writing-products business. As a result, MIRADO pencils appeared over the years under the Eagle, Berol, Sanford, and Paper Mate names. Although the owner and pencil name changed over time, the MIRADO pencil has always retained one longstanding design feature: the Mirado Pencil configuration mark consisting of the contrasting red band positioned around its metal ferrule.
Did you know that Sanford, L.P. is also the owner of several other well-known trademarks for office supplies? ELMER’S® [5], ERASERMATE® [6], EXPO® [7], LIQUID PAPER® [8], PAPERMATE® [9], SHARPIE® [10], and X-ACTO® [11] are all office supply brands also owned by Sanford, L.P. – find out more about some of these trademarks in other (or future) posts!
Copyright © 2026 by Illustrated IP, LLC. All rights reserved.
[1] Paper Mate Mirado Black Warrior Woodcase Pencils, HB #2 lead, PAPER MATE, https://www.papermate.com/pencils/paper-mate-mirado-black-warrior-woodcase-pencils-hb-2-lead/SAP_2254.html.
[2] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 52,807, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=71015729&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.
[3] Group of Three Eagle Pencil Company Drawing Leads, SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY, available at https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_1214602; Eagle Pencil Company 1856–1969, SCIENCE MUSEUM GROUP, available at https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/people/cp108786/eagle-pencil-company; Berol Corporation, PENCIL PAGES, available at https://www.pencilpages.com/mfg/berol.htm; Mirado Pencil Discontinued After One Century, PENCIL TALK, posted February 24, 2020, and available at https://www.penciltalk.org/2020/02/mirado-pencil-discontinued-after-one-century.
[4] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 434,039, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=71515261&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.
[5] See, e.g., USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 3,389,055, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=78972001&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.
[6] See, e.g., USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 1,139,230, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=73190188&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.
[7] See, e.g., USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 7,055,441, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=97688793&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.
[8] See, e.g., USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 1,128,622, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=73168782&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.
[9] See, e.g., USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 565,961, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=71610495&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.
[10] See, e.g., USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 807,818, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=72194243&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.
[11] See, e.g., USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 3,772,498, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=77502049&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.