The articles of association of the Grand Rapids Furniture Association were filed in the office of the county clerk yesterday. The purposes of the corporation are as follows:

• To buy and sell furniture and furniture supplies and materials
• To own, use and license others to use trademark or trademarks for furniture
• To own, use, and license others to use patents, designs or devices for advertising the sale of furniture

The company owes its origin to the growing feeling that there are many things in which the interests of the furniture factories of the city of Grand Rapids are identical, and many ends that can be accomplished by a corporation whose sole office it shall be to further those interest so far as they pertain to the marketing of the product, the purchase of materials or supplies and the securing to the public of some proper way of protection from opposition by having goods forced upon them claimed to be made in Grand Rapids, but which are made somewhere else. It will be noticed that the company has no power to manufacture at all.

The trademark feature of the association has been more discussed than the others, but it is really only an incident to the others. It is felt that in some way there should be secured not only protection to the public by it from the imposition, but to the furniture industries of the city of Grand Rapids the full results of the good will and good name of the city in the furniture trade. While its small capital would indicate that it does not intend to enter largely and generally upon the sale of furniture, yet it is ample for those cases where the trade of the city can be better exploited in new territory by one company than many. It is not is any sense a combination or the other furniture companies not does it indicate any authority in any way to bind them, nor is it in the nature of a trust, nor can the purposes for which trusts are organized be worked out through this corporation.

Excerpted from, Grand Rapids Herald, June 23, 1900.