American Aloe Corp. v. Aloe Creme Laboratories, Inc.

291 F. Supp. 645, 159 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 560, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12294
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedSeptember 26, 1968
DocketCiv. A. No. 65 C 873
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 291 F. Supp. 645 (American Aloe Corp. v. Aloe Creme Laboratories, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
American Aloe Corp. v. Aloe Creme Laboratories, Inc., 291 F. Supp. 645, 159 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 560, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12294 (N.D. Ill. 1968).

Opinion

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

PERRY, District Judge.

The Court having examined the pleadings, and heard the testimony, and studied the exhibits, and briefs of the parties, filed by counsel, makes the following Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law:

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Plaintiff, American Aloe Corporation, is a Delaware corporation, having its principal place of business in Chicago, where the complaint herein was filed on June 1, 1965 (Par. 1 of the complaint) .

2. Plaintiff was incorporated on January 20, 1964, by Mr. White, but was inactive until Mr. White hired Mr. Goodman in September, 1964 (R-2293, 2301, 2332).

3. On February 8,1966, Organon, Inc. acquired control of the stock of plaintiff and moved its office to West Orange, New Jersey (R-471, 1815, 573, 1929, 2215).

4. Defendant, Aloe Creme Laboratories, Inc., is a Florida corporation, incorporated on February 3, 1953, with its principal place of business in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (R-559, 1747, 1165; Par. 1 of the Complaint, Answer and Reply), and with an office and warehouse in Chicago, Illinois (R-1024, 2075).

5. In 1953, defendant began the creation and sale of ointment and in 1957, cosmetics, and became a modern pioneer in the stabilization of aloe vera gel in [647]*647these products (R-1163-5, 1190, 147, 1219, 1544, 1144-55, 1265).

6. Prior to defendant’s incorporation in 1953, there is evidence that leaves of the aloe plant were cut and the fresh gel of the leaves was applied by users direct to their wounds, but the gel being vegetable matter, • decayed quickly and could not be stored for any length of time (R-1149-67).

7. There were sporadic attempts to maintain the fresh gel in an ointment, such as Dr. Collins, Alvagel and Mr. McCarty, but none of these stabilized the product for sufficient shelf life to establish a successful business (R-1178). Dr. Collins’ product introduced in evidence as Plaintiff’s Exhibit 55 had deteriorated and was black and unuseable (R-342, 1180-87). Mrs. Collins testified her business was very small (R-347-54). Alvagel had a very limited shelf life, and its business, if alive is insignificant (R-339). Mr. McCarty, with no knowledge of chemistry (R-982), was never successful with his products and admitted that he really went out of business when he moved to Dial, Georgia, in 1949 (R-976, 1005-7, 674). The formula he sold to Mr. White was never used by American Aloe Corporation, because Mr. White said he decided not to use it (R-674-6). There was no successful, accepted, stabilized ointment containing aloe vera gel prior to defendant entering the market in 1953 (R-1172).

8. Defendant became the first successful operation in creating and selling stable products containing aloe vera gel that had a commercially acceptable shelf life of two years (R-1164, 1172, 574, 2292, 1855).

9. In 1953, defendant was the first user of the trade name Aloe Creme Laboratories, Inc (R-1165), which use has been continuous to date and has never been restrained (R-1165-7, 1747; Def. Ex. 113).

10. Plaintiff, in its complaint— paragraph 5, admits defendant’s trademark use of ALO- by stating “Defendant identifies its ‘aloe products’ by means of the word ‘ALO’ and combinations thereof.”

11. Defendant’s first product, an ointment, in 1953, was put out under the trademark ALO-CREME OINTMENT, abbreviated in 1963 to ALO-OINTMENT (R-1165-7, 560, 1049, 1244,1216-8,1534, 1191, 1544, 559-60).

12. Defendant’s first cosmetics were introduced in 1957, under the trademarks ALO-CREME FACE, ALO-CREME HANDS, and ALO-CREME BODY, abbreviated in 1963 to ALO-FACE, ALO-HANDS and ALO-BODY (R-1167, 1216-21, 1405, 147, 1268, 1233, 1049, 1343, 1192; Def. Exs. 1-19 Group Ex. D — 12, J-l, 3 and 6).

13. Defendant has used on its products, since at least 1963, the trademarks ALO-PLUS, TRAV-ALO, ALO-RELIEF, ALO- and Design, ALO-MOISTURE PLUS, ALO-V SKIN CLEANSER, ALO-BEAUTY MATTE, ALO-TONE, ALO-ROUGE, ALO-LIPSTICK, ALO-POU-DRE, ALO-V SHAMPOO, ALO-COSMETICS, ALO-CABANA SET, ALO-LEGS, Design of Plant, QUEEN NEFERTITI, FASHION TAN and AFTER TAN (R-1192-8, 1214-21, 1343).

14. Plaintiff in its complaint — paragraph 5, admits defendant’s ownership of the trademarks and registrations No. 784,193 for ALO-FACE and No. 784,194 for ALO-PLUS issued by the United States Patent Office to defendant (Def. Ex. 56, 60; R-1214).

15. Defendant is the owner of the following trademarks and registrations therefor issued to it by the United States Patent Office: No. 775,943 for TRAVALO, No. 789,240 for Design of Plant, No. 784,195 for AFTER TAN, and No. 659,620 for FASHION TAN (Def. Exs. 61, 64, 68, 67; R-1214, 1343).

16. Defendant is the owner of the following trademarks and registrations therefor issued to it by the United States Patent Office: No. 812,766 for ALO-HANDS, No. 815,248 for ALO-COSMETICS, No. 825,909 for ALO-RELIEF, No. 804,536 for ALO- and Design, No. 798,737 for QUEEN [648]*648NEFERTITI, No. 811,159 for Design of Plant, and No. 794,900 for MOISTURE PLUS (Def. Exs. 57, 58, 59, 62, 68, 65, 66; R-1214-5, 1343).

17. Defendant is the owner of a family of ALO- trademarks, including ALO-TONE, ALO-BEAUTY MATTE, ALO-OINTMENT, ALO-MOISTURE PLUS, ALO-V SKIN CLEANSER, ALO-V SHAMPOO, ALO-LIPSTICK, ALO-POUDRE, ALO-ROUGE, ALO-CABANA SET, ALO-LEGS (R-1192-8, 1343; Def. Exs. 9-45, Def. Group Exs. A, B, C, D).

18. Although plaintiff was incorporated on January 20, 1964, (R-2300, 2331), and claimed to have made token sales in December, 1964 (R-2213, 2240), it first introduced its products bearing trademarks in a store on March 8, 1965 (R-2293, 2317, 678). All of these dates are later than defendant’s use of its aforesaid trademarks in 1953, 1957 and 1963, so that defendant clearly has priority on trademark use.

19. Defendant began using its first ALO- trademarks in 1953, and from that time to date, has continuously used ALO- trademarks on its products so that its use of same has exceeded 15 years in length of time (R-1165, 1191,147, 1219).

20. When defendant began the use of its first ALO- trademark on ointment in 1953, and on cosmetics in 1957, there were no other or prior users of an ALO-trademark, so that defendant became the original and exclusive user of said ALO-trademarks (R-1164, 1172).

21. Defendant has extensively sold and advertised cosmetics and ointments bearing ALO- trademarks throughout the United States in leading department and drug stores from coast to coast (R-1199-1200, 59, 1749, 1228-42), with repeat orders (R-1751, 2145, 1255, 1261 to the extent of eight million dollars in sales and two million dollars in advertising (R-1228-46, 1749, 560, 1305-13).

22. The trade, including dealers in stores, the purchasing public and consumers have come to recognize cosmetics and ointments sold under ALO-trademarks as indicating exclusively the products of defendant and that ALO- to them means only the products of Aloe Creme Laboratories, Inc. (R-1938-46, 1785-8, 1793-6, 1798-1807, 1890, 1898, 2016-21, 2253-5, 2263, 2372-88, 41, 53, 1544, 1554, 1090-1108, 1111, 1590, 2318, 1273-89,1255-9; Def.Group Ex. A-l, 22, 13, 18, 19, 20, B-9, 28, 35, C-6, 8, 1, 18, 3, M and K).

23. News media and other independent sources have acknowledged the success story of Aloe Creme Laboratories, Inc. and have written up news items recognizing that products bearing its ALO- trademarks indicate that they could only come from defendant. (Def.

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Bluebook (online)
291 F. Supp. 645, 159 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 560, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12294, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/american-aloe-corp-v-aloe-creme-laboratories-inc-ilnd-1968.