Sterling Products bought Bayer's seized trademarks at auction

After the United States entered World War I against Germany in April 1917, the federal government's Office of the Alien Property Custodian was empowered to seize US-based assets owned by nationals of enemy nations, including the American subsidiary of the German pharmaceutical firm Bayer, whose US trademarks covered the Bayer company name itself along with drug brands including Aspirin and Heroin. Bayer's US shares and trademark rights were formally arrested in autumn 1917 as enemy property.

On December 12, 1918, weeks after the armistice ended fighting in Europe, the seized Bayer Company assets, including the Bayer name and its US and Canadian trademarks, were sold at public government auction. Sterling Products Company, a comparatively small patent-medicine firm, won the auction with a bid of $5.3 million, instantly acquiring the manufacturing facilities, trademarks and brand recognition of one of the most established pharmaceutical names in America without having built any of it itself.

Bought Bayer's seized trademarks at a US government auction, converting decades of enemy-built brand investment into a single transferable asset for $5.3 million.

Wartime seizure made Bayer's trademarks available for sale, a rare event.

Government auction allowed any bidder with capital to acquire the brand.

The Bayer name and Aspirin trademark carried instant consumer trust.

Sterling avoided decades of brand-building by purchasing existing recognition.

When a competitor's assets become legally transferable through seizure or forced sale, a fast-moving buyer can acquire decades of brand value at a fraction of the cost of building it.

In 1918 Sterling bought Bayer's seized US trademarks, including Aspirin, at auction for $5.3M — instantly owning a famous drug brand. The 1918 auction permanently split the Bayer name and Aspirin trademark between two unrelated companies in North America and Germany, a divide formalized in subsequent litigation including United States v. Chemical Foundation (1925) and Sterling Drug, Inc. v. Bayer AG (1990s), and remains a documented case study in how wartime property law can override ordinary trademark and brand-building economics.