Andrew Jergens Co. v. Woodbury, Inc.

273 F. 952, 1921 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1318
CourtDistrict Court, D. Delaware
DecidedMarch 12, 1921
DocketNo. 370
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 273 F. 952 (Andrew Jergens Co. v. Woodbury, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Andrew Jergens Co. v. Woodbury, Inc., 273 F. 952, 1921 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1318 (D. Del. 1921).

Opinion

MORRIS, District Judge.

This is a suit to enjoin alleged trademark infringement and unfair competition. The complainant, the Andrew Jergens Company, an Ohio corporation, asserts that it has the right to the exclusive use of the name “Woodbuiy,” or “Woodbury’s,” and of a mark consisting of a representation of a head minus the bust and neck, commonly described as a “neckless head,” upon or in connection with toilet articles and dermatological preparations, and that the defendants, Wm. A. Woodbury Distributors, Inc., Woodbury, Inc., and Woodbury System, Inc., are, in violation of complainant’s rights, using or threatening to use the name and mark upon similar articles [955]*955and preparations. One defendant, the Distributors, denies that the plaintiffs rights in either the name or mark are exclusive, and, while admitting that it, the Distributors, uses the mark and the name upon certain toilet articles and preparations, and the name upon certain others, it denies that in so doing it has entered the field of complainant’s rights. The remaining defendants claim that the complainant has failed to show that either of them has used or threatened to use the name or mark as charged. The case was tried in open court upon bill, answer, oral testimony, and documentary evidence. The relief sought is a permanent injunction and an accounting.

The basic issues are: (1) What is the scope and extent of complainant’s rights in the mark and name? and (2) Have its rights therein been infringed by the defendants or any of them? The complainant does not contend that it was the first to adopt and use the name or mark, but says that its rights “are based upon and were acquired by it through two contracts, one dated June 13, 1901, * * * and the other dated March 6, 1909.” The 1901 contract was made by and between John H. Woodbury, John H. Woodbury Dermatological Institute, a New York corporation, P. R. McCargo, and Wm. A. Wood-bury, of the one part, and Andrew Jergens & Co., a copartnership, of the other part. (As complainant’s succession in title from the partnership through a New York corporation of similar name is not in issue, they will be considered herein as a single entity and referred to as the complainant, or the Jergens Company.) Prior to 1901 John H. Wood-bury and the John PI. Woodbury Dermatological Institute were successively the owners of and engaged in the business of making and selling certain proprietary medicated dermatological preparations and toilet articles of the general class of detergents, including, among other tilings, soap, creams, powders, shampoos, tonics, and lotions, all of which were adapted for use in the care of the human skin, hair, or teeth. The mark was first adopted by John H. Woodbury and used upon the package or receptacle for each commodity. As stated by the complainant:

“lie appropriated that symbol as a marlr of the entire class of toilet articles and preparations.”

The essential feature of the mark, the neckless head, was usually-accompanied, above, by the words “John H. Woodbury’s” which were immediately followed by the name of the commodity upon which the mark was being used. Beneath, and at the sides of the head, printed matter in the nature of directions for using the article ordinarily ap • paired. In the year 1889 John II. Woodbury caused that mark, accompanied by his name and other printed matter, as above indicated, to be registered (serial No. 16,958) for facial soap. The next year he caused the John H. Woodbury Dermatological Institute to be incorporated in New York, and in consideration of its entire capital stock transferred to it all his rights, trade-marks, and good will. The Institute prospered. It manufactured and sold, not only the eight articles thereafter sold to the Jergens Company, but many others of the same general class. It also became engaged in the business of treating persons [956]*956for facial blemishes and deformities and for diseases of the skin. Wm. A. Woodbury and McCargo were employees and stockholders of the Institute, and had, possibly, acquired through John H. Woodbury, to whom certain rights were reassigned by the Institute, some interest- in one or mere of the commodities.

Such, in brief, were the conditions when, in 1901, the first contract, through which the complainant claims, was made. By.that contract John H. and Wm. A. Woodbury, McCargo, and the Institute transferred and assigned unto the complainant “all their right, title, and in-terest in and to the commodities known as Facial Soap, Facial Cream, Dental Cream, Tooth Powder, Odorine Powder, Facial Powder, Shaving Sticks, and Shaving Soap, and all the trade-marks, copyrights, and privileges of every name and nature whatsoever appurtenant to the ownership thereof,” absolutely; “also the privilege of using only on the articles above mentioned the neckless head trade-mark.”

It is not denied that the complainant is still entitled to all the legal rights in and to the name and mark that were acquired by it through that contract, but it is contended by the Distributors that the rights so obtained by the complainant have not been enlarged or increased. The complainant, on the other hand, asserts that the remaining and complementary rights in the name and mark were acquired by it through the contract of March 6, 1909, and that thereby its rights in the name and mark became exclusive.

The circumstances leading up to the last-mentioned contract appear at large in the pleadings in the suit of Stiles, Trustee, against the Jergens Company. ' Complainant’s Exhibit No. 73. Briefly stated, they are that by the contract of 1901 John H. Woodbury also transferred to the complainant herein 50 shares (being one-half) of the capital stock of the Institute. The remaining 50 shares were then owned by John H. Woodbury, 30 shares; Wm. A. Woodbury, 19 shares; and McCargo, 1 share — which had been given to him by Wm. A. Woodbury. After the last-mentioned contract was made, the directorate of the Institute consisted of a representative of the Jergens Company, McCargo, and Wm. A. Woodbury. The business of the Institute continued as theretofore, /save as to the eight specified articles sold to the Jergens Company. In 1904 the complainant bought for a very large sum of money the 1 share of stock owned by McCargo, and he was replaced as director by another representative of the Jergens interests. Thereby the complainant acquired control of the board, and consequently of the Institute and its business.

On October 7, 1908, the Institute was adjudged a bankrupt upon a petition filed on the 4th day of the preceding month. The contract of March 6, 1909, through which complainant claims, was made by the trustee in bankruptcy. Through that contract the Jergens Company claims to have acquired all the rights in the mark and name not theretofore owned by it. The trustee in bankruptcy of the Institute thereby undertook to assign to one Leyman, who immediately made a like assignment to the complainant, all the right, title, and interest that the Institute had in the neckless head trade-mark at the time the petition [957]*957in bankruptcy was filed; in an application for a trade-mark, serial No. 37,232, filed by the Institute September 4, 1908 (being an application to register the word “Woodbury’s” as a trade-mark .for hair tonic, scalp cleaner, scalp cream, skin lotion, and massage cream), and—

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
273 F. 952, 1921 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1318, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/andrew-jergens-co-v-woodbury-inc-ded-1921.