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Westinghouse Brand Name Still Burns Bright

Every year around this time, Westinghouse Electric Co. spokesman Vaughn Gilbert fends off consumers who call to ask about the company's decorative Christmas bulbs. "I tell them we don't make Christmas lights," says Gilbert. "We make nuclear power plants."

The Westinghouse operation, based in Monroeville, Pa., a unit of Japanese conglomerate Toshiba Corp., is a nuclear power company. But several decades after Westinghouse stopped making electrical appliances, there is a lot of confusion about the many products that still carry the world-famous Westinghouse brand. Several companies have purchased licenses allowing them to slap Westinghouse's name on their ceiling fans, TVs, blenders, can openers, vacuum cleaners, garage door openers, air conditioning units and yes--green, red and white Christmas lights.

One Philadelphia-based company that makes thousands of light bulbs and accessories for the consumer and commercial markets purchased a Westinghouse naming license in 1998, then changed its name to Westinghouse Lighting from Angelo Brothers Co. in 2002. It is so in love with the Westinghouse brand that it purchased the giant circle "W" cube that once sat outside Westinghouse's Pittsburgh headquarters.

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