Avenarius v. Kornely

121 N.W. 336, 139 Wis. 247, 1909 Wisc. LEXIS 187
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedMay 11, 1909
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 121 N.W. 336 (Avenarius v. Kornely) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Avenarius v. Kornely, 121 N.W. 336, 139 Wis. 247, 1909 Wisc. LEXIS 187 (Wis. 1909).

Opinions

Eerwin, J.

The findings of the trial court above set out give a sufficient statement of the material facts in the case. Findings 8, 10, 13, 15, 18, and 19 are attacked for want of evidence to support them. We think the findings challenged are well supported by the evidence and shall spend no time upon that point. It is also claimed that the ninth finding is inconsistent, since it finds that the word “Carbolineum” was-intended as a trade-mark and also a specific name and designation for a commodity, and that the word cannot serve-the double purpose of a trade-name and also the name of the-compound. It is not easy to reconcile the authorities upon the point, some cases holding that, when a new compound is-discovered and christened and given a name, the name cannot also be appropriated as a trade-mark, but the cases appear-to turn on whether the word denotes origin or ownership or is merely descriptive. The exclusive right to use words, letters, or symbols to indicate merely the quality of goods to-which they are affixed cannot be acquired. But the rule-seems to be otherwise if the primary object of the trade-mark 'be to indicate origin or ownership. Canal Co. v. Clark, 80 U. S. 311; Lawrence Mfg. Co. v. Tenn. Mfg. Co. 138 U. S. 537, 11 Sup. Ct. 396; W. R. Lynn S. Co. v. Auburn-Lynn S. Co. 100 Me. 461, 62 Atl. 499; Marshall v. Pinkham, 52 [261]*261Wis. 572, 9 N. W. 615. So the doctrine that a name cannot be a trade-mark or trade-name only applies when the name is used to describe the kind or quality of the thing sold and not the article of a particular-maker or seller. This doctrine seems to be recognized in the cases cited by appellant. In Canal Co. v. Claris, supra, it was held that where one mined coal in the Lackawanna Valley, Pennsylvania, and his coal has become known as “Lackawanna coal,” others who come in afterwards and mine coal in another part of the valley cannot be enjoined from calling their coal “Lackawanna coal,” it being in fact and in its generic character properly so designated; and that because the complainants had not coined the word “Lackawanna,” but found it a settled .and known appellation of the district in which their coal deposits and those of others were situated, and not applying to •any manufacture of theirs, but to that portion of the coal of the valley in which they mined and marketed it, and differing neither in nature or quality from all other coal of the same region, the word could not be appropriated. ; The court said, page 323:

“Hence the trade-mark must either by itself or by association point distinctively to the origin or ownership of the article to which it is applied. The reason of this is that, unless it does, neither can he who first adopted it be injured by any appropriation Or imitation of it by others nor can the public be deceived. The first appropriation of a name or device pointing to his ownership, or which, by being associated with articles of trade, has-acquired an understood reference to the originator or manufacturer of the articles, is injured whenever another adopts the same name or device for similar articles, because such adoption is in effect representing falsely that the productions of the latter are those of the former.”

In Manufacturing Co. v. Trainer, 101 U. S. 51, 53, the court said:

“The general doctrines of the law as to trade-marks, the symbols or signs which may be used to designate products of .a particular manufacture, and the protection which the courts [262]*262will afford, to those who originally appropriated them, are not controverted. Every one is at liberty to affix to a product of his own manufacture any symbol or device, not previously appropriated, which will distinguish it from articles of the same general nature manufactured or sold by others, and thus secure to himself the benefits of increased sale by reason of any peculiar excellence he may have given to it.”

In Candee, S. & Co. v. Deere & Co. 54 Ill. 439, the question was whether one manufacturer of plows at Moline, Illinois, could appropriate as his own, to the exclusion of all other manufacturers at the same place, the name of the place, and thus prevent other manufacturers from designating their manufacture as of the place where they are actually made; and it is said the cases do not go to that extent. It is further said in the opinion that the words “Moline, 111.,” had acquired a generic meaning, and one manufacturer at Moline had the same right to use them that any other manufacturer there had.

In Royal B. P. Co. v. Sherrell, 93 N. Y. 331, it was held that the word “Royal,” as indicating quality or grade, could not be appropriated as a trade-mark, and it was said:

“The right to use a word or name as a trade-mark is the right which a person has to use a certain mark or name for articles which he has manufactured so that he may prevent another person from using it, because the mark or name denotes that articles so marked or named were manufactured by a certain person, and no one can have the right to put the same name or mark upon his goods and thus represent them to have been manufactured by the person whose mark it is. Per Sir V. Page-Wood, V. C., in Collins Co. v. Cowen, 3 K. & J. 428. But there can be no exclusive right to the use of words or marks which have no relation to the origin or ownership of the goods and are only meant to indicate their quality or grade.”

In Beadleston & Woerz v. Cooke B. Co. 74 Fed. 229, the majority of the court held that the word “Imperial” was a designation of quality in the connection used and therefore [263]*263could not be appropriated as a trade-name, although the court observes that the word is close to the border line between terms that signify quality and those that do not. There is a strong dissent from the proposition that the word is descriptive or designates quality.

In Chaffee Mfg. Co. v. Selchow, 131 Fed. 543, it was held that the word “Flinch” was generic and known to the public and therefore was not the subject of a trade-mark, citing Browne, Trade-marks, §§ 87-91; Paul, Trade-marks, § 35. The court said, pages 545, 546: .. .

“If chess or golf or whist were now invented and named, could any manufacturer or vendor of the implements with which such games are played obtain a trade-mark in their names by selling such implements put up in boxes marked with the names of the games ? He of course could adopt a trade-mark to distinguish the chessmen or the playing cards or the golf clubs which he made from those made by others, but I think he could not acquire a trade-mark in the names of the games by simply selling the games after they had become known to the public under such names.”

In Singer Mfg. Co. v. June Mfg. Co. 163 U. S. 169, 16 Sup. Ct. 1002, the question arose upon the expiration of a patent during the existence of which the word “Singer” as used to indicate style of the machine rather than as solely indicating the origin of manufacture had become public and constituted the generic description.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
121 N.W. 336, 139 Wis. 247, 1909 Wisc. LEXIS 187, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/avenarius-v-kornely-wis-1909.