Allan B. Wrisley Co. v. Iowa Soap Co.

104 F. 548, 1900 U.S. App. LEXIS 4851
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the Southern District of Iowa
DecidedSeptember 29, 1900
DocketNo. 231
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 104 F. 548 (Allan B. Wrisley Co. v. Iowa Soap Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the Southern District of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allan B. Wrisley Co. v. Iowa Soap Co., 104 F. 548, 1900 U.S. App. LEXIS 4851 (circtsdia 1900).

Opinion

McPHERSON, District Judge.

This is an application for a temporary injunction, and comes to this court by reason of diverse citizenship and the amount involved. Complainant shows that it is engaged in the manufacture of laundry soap at Chicago, Ill., and that it is the successor in business to one Allan B. Wrisley, who established his business in Chicago in 1862, and that more than 20 years ago he adopted as a trade-mark for his laundry soap the word symbol “Old Country,” and that plaintiff corporation is still engaged in that business, and uses said trade-mark. It further alleges that said soap is of good quality, and has a splendid reputation as such, and is in great demand. The plaintiff further alleges that it has complied with the statutes of the United States pertaining to trade-marks, and that its rights are covered by certificate No. 29,285, of date December 8, 1896, and complains that defendant is not only infringing upon its rights in the manufapture and sale of the soap, but that defendant is guilty of unfair competition.

The pleadings and the evidence, including exhibits, show that plaintiff and its predecessor, Mr. Wrisley, have been manufacturing and [549]*549selling said soap in Chicago for more than 20 years, and that said soap has acquired the name of “Old Country Soap,” sometimes “Country Soap,” and sometimes “Old C Soap,” and that defendant is manufacturing and selling, and has been since some time in the year 1898, a soap called “Our Country Soap.”

It would be academic, and a display of assumed learning, to quote from many of the authorities. I content myself by referring to but one or two cases. Pittsburg Crushed Steel Co. v. Diamond Steel Co., 61 U. S. App. 22, 89 Fed. 706, 32 C. C. A. 324.

This case is by the circuit court of appeals from this circuit. The rule, as stated in that case by Judge Sanborn, is not only a clear statement of the rule as found in the many cases with which the books abound, but, of course, is binding on this court. It is there said:

“Kvery suit oí this character is founded on the fact that the aclion, or proposed action, of the defendant has deceived, or is calculated to deceive, ordinary purchasers buying with usual care, so that they have purchased, or will probably' purchase, the goods of the defendant under the mistaken belief that they aré those of the complainant, to the serious damage of the latter. The deception, or probable deception, of the ordinary purchaser to such an extent that he buys, or probably will buy, the property of one manufacturer or vendor in the belief that it is that of another, is a sine qua non of the maintenance of such a suit, because every one has the undoubted right to sell his own goods or goods of his own manufacture as such, however much such sales may diminish or injure the business of his competitors.”

And much more of like import is found in tbe opinion in that case. The foregoing is a correct statement of the rule. One person shall not lie allowed to go out in channels of trade, and represent himself to be the person of the complainant, and on the reputation of complainant sell his (defendant’s) goods. And it is equally unfair, and as much a wrong, for a defendant, by the adoption of symbols, labels, wrappers, packages, and names, to go out into- the channels of trade, and lead consumers to believe that his goods are the goods of complainant. Bui, short of this, the man first in business or manufacturing cannot stifle all other trade, and control the entire market.

There is nothing more in the law of infringement of trade-marks or unfair competition as applicable to- this case. Believing the foregoing to be the law, nothing remains but to apply the facts of the case to ilie law.

Both parties shipped their soap, from their respective places of manufacture, to the trade, in pine boxes of about the same size. On complainant’s boxes are the words, “Allan B. Wrisley Old Country Soap. 479, 481, 483 Fifth Ave., Chicago,” which words are in large blue lettering.

Defendant's boxes are marked on one side, in large black letters, “Our Country’s Soap, Manufactured by Iowa Soap Co.” On the other side, in red letters, is a guaranty, and then “Iowa Soap Co., Burlington. la.”

The bars of soap in each case are supposed to be one pound, and are of about the same size. Plaintiff's bar of soap is marked “'Allan B. \Yi-isley, Chicago.” in letters cut in the soap on a smooth surface on the bar. On the other side “Old Country Soap” lettered in the same way.

[550]*550Defendant’s soap is lettered on one side “Our Country Soap/’ and on the other “Iowa Soap Co., Burlington, Iowa.” The said lettering on both sides is in a panel cut out of the soap.

Plaintiff’s wrapper around each bar of soap has in large blue lettering as follows: “Allan B. Wrisley’s (Trade-Mark) Old 'Country Soap. Allan B. Wrisley.’’ His address or place of manufacture is not given on the wrapper.

Defendant’s wrapper, on one side, in large red letters on a blue field, in part of an American eagle, is “Our 'Country’s Soap.” On the other side, “Iowa Soap Co., Manufacturers, Burlington, Iowa.” Also a lot of blue stars.

The soap of each party is yellow, defendant’s being a deep yellow and plaintiff’s a light yellow; but the bar soap of plaintiff in evidence is apparently an old one, and I suspect that in bars each of the same age they would be more alike in color, and yet this is mere surmise. Such is a description of the boxes in which the soap is shipped, the wrappers around the soap, and the soap itself, and the lettering both on the bars of soap and on the wrappers and on the boxes.

Plaintiff’s soap is called “Old Country Soap”; defendant’s soap is called “Our Country’s Soap.” Plaintiff has been in the business of manufacturing and selling “Old Country Soap” for a time long prior to the time defendant commenced to manufacture and sell its soap.

So the question of fact is, would a person of ordinary intelligence be misled into buying defendant’s soap when wanting the soap of plaintiff?

The affidavits show that in a few isolated cases parties have asked for plaintiff’s soap, and have received defendant’s. But the affidavits show that these were few in number, and in most of the instances, .in my opinion, were bought by parties seeking evidence for this case, and by parties who were playing detective, and not the legitimate result of actual trade. The affidavits are very unsatisfactory as to these isolated cases, but my judgment is that neither from the sight, nor from the sound of the names, of the soap could any person of ordinary intelligence be misled into buying the one, supposing he was buying the other soap.

Justice Brewer covers this matter in a case in the circuit court of appeals from this circuit so much better than I can that I refer to what he says. Lorillard Co. v. Peper, 57 U. S. App. 565, 86 Fed. 956, 30 C. C. A. 496.

This was a contention over tobacco packages. The plaintiff’s tobacco was called “Tube Rose”; defendant’s tobacco was called “True Smoke.” Both packages were alike in form. The labels on each were made of red and blue lettering, but the lettering was different in size. But both plaintiff’s and defendant’s packages contained the two following sentences: “Notice.

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Bluebook (online)
104 F. 548, 1900 U.S. App. LEXIS 4851, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allan-b-wrisley-co-v-iowa-soap-co-circtsdia-1900.