Explanation:

Most petroleum road maps were issued by firms whose principal function was the retail of motor fuels and are generally associated with those gasoline brands to the exclusion of other products such as lubricating oil. While many firms marketed both fuels and lubricants under the same brand name, others had separate brands (Phillips gasoline vs. Trop-Arctic oil, Flying A gas vs. Veedol oil, and so forth). It does not seem practical for the listing project to encompass brand names for adjunct products such as lubricants or TBA products.

Yet, a number of interesting maps (mostly of an early vintage) were issued by firms involved solely in the sale of petroleum-based lubricants. In the interest of including these maps, a exception to the petroleum-based motor fuel criteria is warranted. Accordingly, maps issued by firms involved in the retail sale of petroleum-based lubricants shall be included in the brand listing provided that no accompanying motor fuel brand name appears on the map.

Maps issued by convenience store or department stores (e.g., Sears, Roebuck & Company) are included if the issuing firm engaged in retail sales of petroleum fuel.

Explanation:

Many petroleum firms issued a variety of maps used for purposes other than highway navigation. Examples include the many waterway maps, maps of various World's Fairs, maps of oil production fields, and the World War II maps issued by Esso and several other firms. These maps, while interesting, are not usable for highway navigation and thus do not qualify for inclusion in this phase of the brand listing.

Several petroleum firms issue station locator guides. These maps are typically of a contemporary (1990s) nature, an example being the locator maps issued by the Sheetz convenience store chain. While the cartography of these maps is not detailed and the maps' emphasis is simply to show station locations, the Sheetz maps can be used for navigation and thus qualify as road maps for the purpose of this project.

Several station locator guides give station locations in text form and include thumbnail-sized maps of the immediate vicinity of each station. This type of thumbnail map is generally useful as a supplement to other cartographic resources. Since these thumbnail maps are not particularly useful for highway navigation in and of itself, such locator guides shall not qualify as road maps for the purpose of this project.

Several petroleum firms issued special purpose maps. An example is Atlantic's fishing map of Pennsylvania which shows particular varieties of fish common in various rivers and lakes of that state. While the primary purpose of these fishing maps is to show fishing spots, the maps consist of data of interest to sport fishermen superimposed on a regular road map. Since these maps can be used for highway navigation, their special purpose and special titling do not disqualify them from inclusion in the road map brand listing.

Explanation:

Explanation:

Consider the Flying A brand originally derived with Associated Oil Co. of California but later adopted at the former Tydol locations in the east and midwest after the Tide Water and Associated companies merged. A search for one of the affiliated issuer names would return a subset of the following brands:

A search for one of the affiliated brand names would return an appropriate subset of the following issuer names:

These requirements ease searching of multiple brands used by a single issuer (i.e., a particular oil company) and makes it easier to find relationships between issuers and the brands used by those issuers to identify petroleum products.

Explanation:

Many maps issued by Standard of California (Socal) and their Standard of Texas subsidiary had identical or extremely similar covers which did not specifically identify the issuing company. There is also some overlap between the territory covered by Socal and its Texas subsidiary. However, without exception, the specific company name is identified in the map legend. This identification shall be used as an authoritative source of the map issuer, even though the map covers do not specifically identify "Standard Oil Company of California" or "Standard Oil Company of Texas".

Explanation:

For example, Western Oil & Fuel Co. of Minneapolis (a subsidiary of Conoco for the latter part of its life) used three brands: DS, Mileage, and Western. Considering Western and its parent Conoco, maps are known to have been issued with the following combinations of brands:

Distinct entries in the listing shall be provided for each of these brand combinations. A search for one of the brands shall yield a result set that includes each matching combination of brands in which the search criteria appears.

A brand name search for the "DS" brand would yield each of the above brand combinations containing "DS".

An issuer name search for "Conoco" or "Western" would yield each of the brand combinations issued by the respective issuing company.

Explanation:

Beginning with its entry into the United States in the late Fifties, American Petrofina issued road maps for its Fina brand. Fina-branded maps of Denver exist which are stylistically similar to the conventional Fina map and which identify American Petrofina in the same way as the conventional Fina maps. But in addition, these Denver issues also bear a reference to Park Petroleum, Inc., presumably Fina's local jobber/distributor. This constitutes a map with multiple issuers. Considering Fina branded maps in the United States, the following issuer combinations exist:

Distinct entries in the listing shall be provided for each of these issuer combinations. A search for one of the issuers shall yield a result set that includes each matching combination of issuers in which the search criteria appears.

An issuer search for the "American Petrofina" issuer would yield both of the above issuer combinations since they contain that issuer name. But an issuer search for "Park Petroleum, Inc." (or some substring thereof) would yield only the one issuer combination which included that company's name.

A brand name search for "Fina" would yield each of the issuer combinations corresponding to a company or companies issuing Fina branded maps.

Explanation:

A non-exhaustive list of distinct issuers which used the same brand name at one time or another include:

With a worldwide scope, no doubt far more examples will turn up of totally unrelated issuing companies that happen to use the same name in different parts of the world.

Explanation:

Explanation:

Brand names such as BP, Caltex, Esso, Fina, Mobil, Shell, and Texaco belongs to a multinational company which owns and operates a separate subsidiary entity for each country in which it operates. Moreover, each of the individual national subsidiaries can issue visually distinct series of maps which occasionally overlap each others' territories. This overlap is particularly noticeable for companies operating in both the U. S. and Canada but is known to occur overseas.

Since later project stages might include more detailed listings of map cover designs and even individual map issues, it is desirable from the outset to make these distinctions by country even when multiple map-issuing companies exist as siblings within a single corporate family and share a common brand name. Furthermore, the utility of generating listings of brands/issuers operating within specific countries is recognized. By distinguishing national subsidiaries, this distinction can be made. For example, the name of the entity issuing BP-branded maps in Australia would be listed as "BP Australia Ltd." and the entity issuing BP-branded maps in France would be "Société Française des Pétroles BP S. A.".

As provided elsewhere, each changed in the name of these national issuing entities would result in a distinct list entry.

Explanation:

Early Standard of Indiana signage used a rectangular logo marked "Standard Service" with both words having equal prominence. Western Oil and Fuel Company's signage in the Fifties used the wording "Better Mileage Gasoline", which was later simplified to "Mileage". A number of other firms' early brand identification used words such as "oil", "gas", "products", "service", and "stations".

Marketing experts eventually realized that with signage like "Standard Service", the secondary word "Service" tended to compete with the company's principal identification as "Standard". With the desire to provide strong brand and image recognition in the mind of the consumer (especially at modern highway speeds), the secondary words were generally dropped.

Secondary words such as those mentioned above are not unique and are not protected in the same way as would be a true brand name. Moreover, they are neither an important or consistent component of the brand identification. Words like "Ashland" are are significant; words like "Products" are not. Accordingly, secondary words used in signage or other product identification shall not normally be considered as part of a brand name.

Examples of simple typographic alteration include the brands "Clark's" vs. "Clark" and "D-X" vs. "DX". Each of the typographic variants shall qualify as distinct brand names because the predominant part of the brand name changed. "Mobilgas" vs. "Mobil" would likewise be considered as distinct brand names.