Celluloid Manuf'g Co. v. Read

47 F. 712, 1891 U.S. App. LEXIS 1501
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut
DecidedOctober 7, 1891
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 47 F. 712 (Celluloid Manuf'g Co. v. Read) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Celluloid Manuf'g Co. v. Read, 47 F. 712, 1891 U.S. App. LEXIS 1501 (circtdct 1891).

Opinion

Shipman, J.

This is a bill in equity for an injunction against the unlawful use of a trade-mark. The plaintiff was incorporated in 1871, by the name of the “Celluloid Manufacturing Company,” for the manufacture and sale of “celluloid, or solid collodion, and its compounds, and articles made therefrom;” and ever since has existed under said name, has been constantly engaged in said manufacture, and has done an extensive business in producing a great variety of articles of use or ornament which contained, in whole or in part, the substance called “Celluloid.” About the year 1870 the Messrs. Hyatt invented and patented a process for the conversion and manufacture of pyroxyline into a solid, to which, after the manufacture had developed and been materially improved, they gave the arbitrary or fanciful name “Celluloid,” a name which has ever since been applied to the article, as manufactured by the plaintiff, which apparently succeeded to the trade-mark rights [713]*713and became the owner of many of the patents of the Hyatts. The substance has had a wide reputation and popularity on account of its beauty and utility, and the great number of uses of varied character to which it can be adapted. It has been extensively used for the outside portion of collars and cuffs, whereby these articles became impervious to water, and retained the smoothness and glossiness of highly starched linen; but celluloid cuffs are easily distinguished from starched linen cuffs. Celluloid has never been used as a starch, or as a substitute for starch, unless the manufacture of collars and cuffs may be deemed to be such, and there was no testimony that the plaintiff looked forward to its use as starch. The learned scientific expert for the plaintiff testified that it seemed to him not only chemically possible, but highly probable, that a method might he devised by which celluloid, as manufactured at present, could be converted into a starch-like body, fit for use as a substitute for starch, and very possibly presenting modified properties which would render it superior to ordinary starch, and more desirable for such use. The plaintiff has manufactured lacquers and varnishes containing pyroxyline, and an ink to which it gave the name Celluloid Ink, ” which did not contain pyroxyline. The defendant, under the name of the “Celluloid Starch Company,” is manufacturing and selling a powdered laundry starch, which he calls “Celluloid Starch,” and which he presents to the public in packages containing labels which call it by that name, and represent that the article is a new one, and possesses valuable properties, and is “the latest practical invention of the times.” It is, simply, prepared starch, and lias nothing in common with celluloid, as heretofore used and developed, though cellulose and starch in ultimate chemical composition are alike. The complainant alleges in its hill that the complete preservation of the identity of its corporate name is a matter of very great consequence to it, as affecting the good-will of its business, its custom, its credit in the market, and the reputation of its goods, and that it has an exclusive right to the use of its name, and to the use of the designation “Celluloid” as a trade-mark or trade name, and that there can be no lawful use of the word “Celluloid” as a trade-mark except in connection with the sale or use of its products. The bill further alleges that the defendant’s use of the word “ Celluloid” must cause his article to be received by the public as an article made by the plaintiff, or as one containing its product, and that his use is an injury to the plaintiff, and unlawful, because it has the effect to exclude the plaintiff from the enjoyment of its right to use its trade-mark upon a class of articles, to-wit, starches and coatings of different kinds like those upon collars, other examples of which it may at any time produce, and prays for an injunction.

The first important question in the case has been settled. so far as this court is now concerned, by the decision of Mr. Justice Headley in Celluloid Manuf’g Co. v. Cellonite Manuf’g Co., 32 Fed. Rep. 94. The Cellonite Company was manufacturing, under the name “Cellonite,” the same article which the Celluloid Company had long manufactured, and which the corporation of the Cellonite Company hud previously manufactured under the name “Pas bosene.” The plaintiff’s bill prayed for an injunction against the use of the name “Cellonite,” upon the ground [714]*714that it was an unlawful infringement of the plaintiff’s trade-mark. The defendant in that case insisted that, inasmuch as the word “Celluloid” is now a word in common use, and .signifies a well-known article, and is an appellative to designate the substance “Celluloid,” it cannot therefore be used as a trade-mark. Mr. Justice Bradley, after remarking that it was true, as a general rule, that a word merely descriptive of the article to which it is applied cannot be used as a valid' trade-mark, said:

“If the rule referred to were of universal application, the position of the defendant would be unassailable. But the special case before me is this: The complainant’s assignors, the Hyatts, coined and adopted the word when it was unknown, and made it their trade-mark, and the complainant is assignee of all the rights of the Hyatts. When the word was coined and adopted it was clearly a good trade-mark. The question is whether the subsequent use of it by. the public, as a common appellative of the substance manufactured, can take away the complainant’s right. It seems to me that it cannot.”

The justice, after quoting with approbation the conclusion of the New York court of appeals, as stated by Judge Rapallo in Selchow v. Baker, 93 N. Y. 59, said:

“I think it perfectly clear, as matter of law, that the complainant is entitled to the exclusive use of the word ‘ Celluloid ’ as a trade-mark. ”

Judge Rapallo’s clear statement of the conclusion of the court of appeals was as follows:

“Our conclusion is that where a manufacturer has invented a new name, consisting either of a new word or a word or words in common use, which he has applied for the first time to his own manufacture, or to an article manufactured by him, to distinguish it from those manufactured and sold by others, and the name thus adopted is not genuine, or descriptive of the article, its qualities, ingredients, or characteristics, but is arbitrary or fanciful, and is not used merely to denote grade or quality, he is entitled to be protected in the use of that name, notwithstanding that it has become so generally known that it has been adopted by the public as the ordinary appellation of the article. ”

The next and remaining question is whether the defendant’s use of the complainant’s trade-mark is such an unlawful use that it should be restrained. To answer this question, the extent of the owner’s property in a trade-mark, and the character of the act which is held to injuriously affect his property rights, and to call for the interposition of a court of equity, must be ascertained. The office of a trade-mark and the extent of property in its use have been, of late, frequently discussed by the supreme court, and the definitions which were stated by Mr. Justice Strong, in Canal Co. v. Clark, 13 Wall. 311, have been universally approved and confirmed. The learned judge, after saying that “the office of a trade-mark is to point out distinctively the origin or ownership of the article to which it is affixed, or, in other words, to give notice who was the producer,” said:

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Bluebook (online)
47 F. 712, 1891 U.S. App. LEXIS 1501, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/celluloid-manufg-co-v-read-circtdct-1891.