Crafter's name

[Gunspec]

On crafted gear, the crafter's name appears at the bottom of the item tooltip. However, I've noticed a lot of gear that I've purchased has a blank space instead of a name. I've also noticed that people I examine don't have names on their gear at all, even if it is HQ.
Will the name fail to appear if the crafter is currently logged out?

I was really hoping to be able to walk around town and see who was wearing my stuff. Nothing better than seeing 1/3 people with your brand name on their clothes.

[Xenobius]

Crafter's mark is only visible to the crafter himself, and even then has a tendency to disappear when mailed, sold via AH etc.
No way to tell who's the undercutting scrub always putting his wares up on the market board.

[Gunspec]

So, if I hand it to them myself, they will always see the name? I had an offhand tool with someone's name on it, but the name disappeared today when I went to look at it.

[SeleneVenizelos]

The name is never lost, even if you trade, send, sell, etc. Because they show up on the lodestone even after changing hands several times. For whatever reason it seems the names stop showing up in-game the moment they leave your inventory.

[Kamaru]

That would be cool if the name stayed on the gear like in ffxi.