Word: scripto
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...When Scripto, Inc. and Parker Pen Co. each announced that they had a new kind of pencil that writes with liquid graphite and never has to be sharpened (TIME, Feb. 7), everyone in the industry expected a dingdong patent fight and a sales battle. Scripto's "Fluidlead," already on the market, was a 49? pencil; Parker's "Liquid Lead," a model at under $5, was to be brought out in the spring...
Last week on Valentine's Day, instead of scrapping, the two companies kissed and made up. To avoid the expense and confusion of a long patent battle, Scripto and Parker signed an agreement (in ink) that will allow them to use each other's formulas for a royalty. Scripto, as it has previously, will concentrate on the low-priced field; Parker will stick to the higher-priced pencil. Both companies will use Parker's Liquid Lead name, hoping that the agreement will discourage the kind of fly-by-night competition that almost ruined the industry...
With his new pencil, Scripto President James Vinson Carmichael got the jump on the Parker Pen Co., which ballyhooed its own graphite pencil last month but will take "about 90 days" before beginning distribution...
...University ('33), he became a small-town (Marietta, Ga.) lawyer and went to the state legislature. After the war he ran for governor against Herman E. Talmadge, and was beaten under the state's county unit system, although he won the popular vote. After that, he joined Scripto as assistant to the president. A year later he became president, started the company expanding rapidly with ball-point pens, became the second biggest ball-point pen maker (behind Los Angeles' Paper-Mate) and the biggest mechanical pen and pencil maker...
With his capsule pencil, Carmichael hopes to cut deeply into sales of regular pencils, some 1.5 billion of which are sold yearly. Although the capsule model is more expensive, Scripto claims that one cartridge lasts about five times as long as a standard pencil, makes the long-term cost about equal. Biggest advantage: the point will not wear down...