The term deponiert (newer spelling) or deponirt (older spelling), sometimes abbreviated as Depon. or Dep., is a term that was used in Germany but actually originated in France. The different parts of what is commonly known as Germany each had their own laws to protect the rights of manufacturers. For example, in parts of Prussia left of the river Rhine, the laws until 1840 were based on the older French laws of 1811. So "deponirt" had the same meaning as the French "déposer", namely "to deposit".
The term simply stated that the product was legally protected and that a claim to ownership of the design or trademark had been verified by the local authorities and archived for future reference. Imperial Germany itself took until 1874 to officially introduce the so-called "Reichsmarkengesetz", a law that unified and simplified the various forms of registration used in different parts of Germany.
On the basis of this law, the Central Imperial Office for Trademark Registration - the Reichswarenzeichenregister (RWZR) - was established in 1875; two years later, the various representatives also agreed on the Imperial Patent Law, which offered the same approach for patents, resulting in the establishment of the Imperial Patent Office - the Reichspatentamt (RPA) - for this purpose.
However, you should never base a date solely on the presence of such an addition. While this form of registration became obsolete in Germany after 1875, it was still in use elsewhere. In addition, many manufacturers were reluctant to replace the familiar term with any other form of copyright notice for fear of causing problems, and some even continued to use the old marking until around 1890. In addition, many recasts (e.g. from the 1950s) based on old molds often included the old Dep. marks.
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