It was recently announced that St. Paul Travelers Co. is purchasing the rights to the red umbrella mark and the slogan “You’re better off under the umbrella” from Citigroup Inc. The red umbrella, first appearing in a Travelers advertisement in 1870, became the official trademark of Travelers in 1959. According to the Bloomberg news article (link below), Citibank, originally acquiring the mark in 1993 when it purchased Travelers, agreed to the sale in part based on the strong recognition of insurance (and nothing else) by the public when they would see the red umbrella logo. According to Jay Fishman, the Chairman and CEO of Travelers, “The red umbrella is one of the great American business icons. It's a familiar representation of protection and insurance that is in-synch with our customers' ever-changing needs,” and “[b]ringing back the umbrella and changing the company name will further advance the highly regarded Travelers brand.” In 2002, the Travelers Property Casualty Corporation spun off from Citigroup in 2002, and merged two years later with St. Paul Companies. The red umbrella was not included as part of those transactions. Although I could not find a specific trademark number for this umbrella listed in any of the news articles I browsed about this topic, I did locate U.S. Trademark No. 1,161,313 for the red umbrella, filed in December, 1979, issued in July, 1981, and claiming a first use in 1961 for IC 036 (for listed insurance services). That particular registration refers to three earlier registrations (U.S. Trademark Nos. 782,580 (for an umbrella, but the “coloring is not essential except for contrast,” registered in 1964), 807,053 (for a hand holding an umbrella, registered in 1966), and 1,017,602 (for an umbrella in a box with the words "THE TRAVELERS" below it, registered in 1975)). The earliest referenced registered mark in any of the foregoing is U.S. Trademark No. 539,104 for the words “THE TRAVELERS,” registered in 1951.

U.S. Trademark No. 1,161,313: LINK
St. Paul Travelers Press Release: LINK
Citigroup Press Release: LINK
Bloomberg News Article: LINK
U.S. Trademark No. 539,104: LINK
U.S. Trademark No. 782,580: LINK
U.S. Trademark No. 807,053: LINK
U.S. Trademark No. 1,017,602: LINK