Burlington Mills Corporation v. Roy Fabrics

91 F. Supp. 39, 85 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 449, 1950 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2675
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedMay 17, 1950
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 91 F. Supp. 39 (Burlington Mills Corporation v. Roy Fabrics) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Burlington Mills Corporation v. Roy Fabrics, 91 F. Supp. 39, 85 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 449, 1950 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2675 (S.D.N.Y. 1950).

Opinion

CONGER, Justice.

This is a motion by the plaintiff pursuant to Rule 65 of the Federal Rules of *40 Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A., for a preliminary injunction restraining the defendants, their agents, servants, employees,- etc. as follows:

“a. From using the names ‘Burlington Mills’, ‘Burlington’ and ‘Bur-Mil’ and any other trademark or trade name of plaintiff in connection with the display, offering for sale or sale of any goods or fabrics not produced by plaintiff.
“b. From using any name or title resembling that of the plaintiff or any title which may be calculated or have the tendency to mislead or deceive any person, firm or corporation, or the public, into believing that goods displayed, offered for sale or sold by the defendants which are not produced by plaintiff are or have been produced by plaintiff.
“c. From advising, soliciting, or encouraging any person, firm or corporation to use the names ‘Burlington Mills’, ‘Burlington’ and ‘Bur-Mil’ or' any trademark or trade name of plaintiff in connection with advertising, promoting, publicizing, displaying, offering for sale or selling and fabrics not produced by plaintiff.
“d. From representation by words, conduct or actions that goods manufactured by plaintiff and sold as ‘seconds’ are first quality ‘Burlington’ fabrics, and from attempting to remove imperfections from fabrics sold by plaintiff as ‘seconds’ and reselling the same as first quality ‘Burlington’ fabrics.
“e. From failing to clearly state on all invoices issued or caused to be issued by defendants that all fabrics bought by defendants of plaintiff’s manufacture are ‘seconds’, where such fabrics are purchased by defendants as ‘seconds’, or are in fact ‘seconds’, or have been cut from piece goods purchased as, or which in fact are, ‘seconds.’
“f. -From representing, by words, conduct or actions, that Roy Fabrics, Inc. has any preferential price arrangement with plaintiff.
“g. From representing, by words, conduct or actions, that Roy Fabrics, Inc. is an authorized outlet or agency of, or sponsored by, plaintiff for the sale of plaintiff’s goods.
“h. From using the name ‘Burlington’ or any of the plaintiff’s trademarks or trade names in connection with any goods sold by defendants.”

The plaintiff, a Delaware corporation, is engaged in the production, sale and distribution of great varieties of textile products in substantial volume. The defendant, a New York corporation, is engaged in the business of fabrics jobber, purchasing fabrics from various mills and reselling the same to retail stores for ultimate sale to the general public. The individual defendants are the president and secretary-treasurer of the defendant corporation.

The complaint sets forth two claims for relief; the first one based upon the defendants’ alleged wrongful appropriation, exploitation, misuse and abuse of the plaintiff’s trade names and trademarks “Burlington Mills”, “Burlington”, “Bur-Mil” and other trade names and trademarks by various acts of unfair competition including :

“a. Passing off non ‘Burlington’ fabrics to various retail establishments and others as ‘Burlington’ fabrics, and encouraging and advising various of said retail establishments to advertise said non ‘Burlington’ fabrics as ‘Burlington’ fabrics.
“b. Purchasing fabrics from plaintiff which were classified and sold as ‘seconds’, and passing off such ‘seconds’ to various retail establishments and others as ‘Burlington’ ‘first’ quality fabrics.
“c. Purchasing fabrics from plaintiff, which were classified and sold by plaintiff as ‘second’ quality merchandise, and without adequate facilities or skill, attempting to remove the imperfections contained in such ‘seconds’ and reselling such ‘seconds’ as ‘first’ quality ‘Burlington’ fabrics.
“d. Creating the false impression in the trade that defendants were an exclusive authorized outlet, distributor or agency, sponsored by the plaintiff for the sale of its goods, and the further false impression that defendants had a special preferential price arrangement' with plaintiff whereby defend *41 ants could procure regular ‘first’ quality fabrics from plaintiff at less than the normal prevailing market price therefor, and thus resell said goods at less than the normal prevailing market price.
“e. Breaching an agreement between the plaintiff and defendants under which defendants stipulated not to use the Burlington name in any connection with the sale of the latter’s goods.”

The complaint alleges that as a result of defendants’ acts, members of the fabrics trade and the purchasing public have been deceived by defendants into purchasing fabrics which were not Burlington fabrics nor Burlington “first” quality fabrics, but were “seconds”; that defendants have unlawfully diverted from plaintiff sales of large quantities of fabrics with consequent loss of substantial revenue to plaintiff; that defendants have seriously impaired the business relations between plaintiff and its customers ; that the defendants have appropriated plaintiff’s valuable property rights in its trade names, trademarks and good will, and have caused and threaten to continue to cause serious and irreparable harm to the plaintiff and to its good will and business, for which plaintiff has no adequate remedy at law.

The second claim for relief alleges that the defendants’ acts constitute an application and use by defendants of false descriptions and false representations in connection with goods in commerce in violation of Section 43 of the Act of July 5, 1946, Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C.A. § 1125.

The plaintiff seeks a permanent injunction, damages in the amount of $350,000 and an accounting.

The defendants have answered, generally denying the allegations of the complaint and interposing certain special defenses.

It appears that commencing on or about the latter part of 1947, the plaintiff, through various of its divisions, sold certain merchandise to the defendants. With the exception of a few orders placed by the latter in the early part of 1948 for resale at the defendant corporation’s retail establishment and a small quantity of “close outs”, the fabrics purchased by the defendant corporation from the plaintiff were “second” quality merchandise, sold as such by the plaintiff. These sales have amounted to approximately $500,000. Since June, 1949 no orders have been taken from the defendant corporation by the plaintiff and all shipments on previous orders ceased at that time.

In support of its application for a preliminary injunction the plaintiff has submitted numerous affidavits and exhibits.

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Burlington Mills Corporation v. Roy Fabrics, Inc.
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Bluebook (online)
91 F. Supp. 39, 85 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 449, 1950 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2675, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/burlington-mills-corporation-v-roy-fabrics-nysd-1950.