Regarding Perfin Patterns

I hope this is the right forum for this particular question?

I have a question regarding how perfin patterns were registered. To keep it as simple as possible, I'll refer to one pattern I am working on in my files, and that is the pattern used by The "Merchantile National Bank" (MNB) that reads "M N B", in a descending order. I know that the pattern was registered by the Merchantile National Bank, but, it was also used by the "American Trust Company" (ATC) in San Francisco. Now, my question is, once a pattern was registered, or applied for, how did the company allow the use by the second party? What I am asking is, was the MNB allowed to rent, or resell its' pattern to another user?

Did the ATC have to pay a fee for using the MNB pattern and, also, did it also have to be registered? I know that the "Cummins Perfing Company did the vast majority of patterns (or all, though I'm not sure) but did they , the ATC that is, register this pattern as well?
You would normally look under "M" for the MNB pattern but would not know that the user was the ATC?? I hope I explained this ok?

The two companies I mentioned are, of course, not the only ones that did this. Major companies such as General Electric, AT & T etc., and others that had multiple offices across the continent practiced this as well.

Any help would be appreciated

Chimo

Bujutsu