Under Carl Duisbergs leadership, Bayer was firmly committed to the standards of ethical drugs, as opposed to patent medicines. Ethical drugs were drugs that could be obtained only through a pharmacist, usually with a doctors prescription. Advertising drugs directly to consumers was considered unethical and strongly opposed by many medical organizations; that was the domain of patent medicines. Therefore, Bayer was limited to marketing Aspirin directly to doctors.
When production of Aspirin began in 1899, Bayer sent out small packets of the drug to doctors, pharmacists and hospitals, advising them of Aspirins uses and encouraging them to publish about the drugs effects and effectiveness. As positive results came in and enthusiasm grew, Bayer sought to secure patent and trademark wherever possible. It was ineligible for patent in Germany (despite being accepted briefly before the decision was overturned), but Aspirin was patented in Britain (filed 22 December 1898) and the United States (US Patent 644,077 issued 27 February 1900). The British patent was overturned in 1905, the American patent was also besieged but was ultimately upheld.
Faced with growing legal and illegal competition for the globally marketed ASA, Bayer worked to cement the connection between Bayer and Aspirin. One strategy it developed was to switch from distributing Aspirin powder for pharmacists to press into pill form to distributing standardized tablets—complete with the distinctive Bayer cross logo. In 1903 the company set up an American subsidiary, with a converted factory in Rensselaer, New York, to produce Aspirin for the American market without paying import duties. Bayer also sued the most egregious patent violators and smugglers. The company's attempts to hold onto its Aspirin sales incited criticism from muckraking journalists and the American Medical Association, especially after the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act that prevented trademarked drugs from being listed in the United States Pharmacopeia; Bayer listed ASA with an intentionally convoluted generic name (monoacetic acid ester of salicylic acid) to discourage doctors referring to anything but Aspirin.