Creamette Co. v. Minnesota Macaroni Co.

74 F. Supp. 224, 76 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 93, 1947 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2056
CourtDistrict Court, D. Minnesota
DecidedSeptember 30, 1947
DocketCiv. No. 951
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 74 F. Supp. 224 (Creamette Co. v. Minnesota Macaroni Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Creamette Co. v. Minnesota Macaroni Co., 74 F. Supp. 224, 76 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 93, 1947 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2056 (mnd 1947).

Opinion

BELL, District Judge.

On the evidence, files and records in the case, the briefs and arguments of counsel and on due consideration, the Court makes the Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Order for Judgment as follows:

Findings of Fact

1. The Creamette Company, plaintiff, is a corporation duly organized and existing under the laws of the state of Minnesota and has its principal place of business at Minneapolis. The Creamette Company is a successor to Mother’s Macaroni Company and on or about September 8, 1917, took over the business of Mother’s Macaroni Company and thereafter conducted that business, and then became and now is the owner of all trade marks employed in the business thereafter conducted by Mother’s Macaroni Company, and became and now is the owner of the good will of the busi[225]*225ness done in the use of said trade marks and each and all of them.

2. The Minnesota Macaroni Company, defendant, is a corporation duly organized and existing under the laws of the state of Minnesota and has its principal place of business at St. Paul.

3. Plaintiff and defendant both are engaged in the business of manufacturing and selling macaroni products. These products are sold and distributed by each of them in the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, and surrounding trade territory, and plaintiff and defendant are active and direct competitors in the sale of macaroni products in said territory. Each of the parties has been conducting such business in such territory since prior to 1910.

4. Sometime in the summer of 1912 plaintiff’s predecessor, Mother’s Macaroni Company, developed and prepared to market what it regarded as a new type of macaroni, to-wit, a short cut or elbow macaroni formed with very thin walls, which, because of said thin walls, would cook in much less time than had been true of earlier macaroni, and the evidence shows that such thin-walled quick-cooking macaroni was the first such quick-cooking macaroni which came on the market.

3. The president of Mother’s Macaroni Company, Mr. James T. Williams, in searching for a trade-mark to employ on the new quick-cooking macaroni product, coined the word “Creamettes,” and on or about the 15th of August, 1912, Mother’s Macaroni Company began marketing said new type of macaroni in cartons bearing thereon as its trade-mark the word “Creamettes”, and it then began advertising and pushing it as quick-cooking macaroni.

6. The trade-mark “.Creamettes” was applied by Mother’s Macaroni Company directly to the cartons in which the product was sold. It was always printed in a straight line, with a capital C and the remainder of the word small letters, and the two t’s were crossed by a single bar. This trade-mark, so printed, appeared on the front face of the package and also on the sides and ends.

7. Soon after the trade-mark Creamettes was adopted, on or about January 1, 1913, Mother’s Macaroni Company adopted as a trade-mark to be associated with the trade-mark Creamettes the representation of the head and hands of a girl wearing a cook’s cap, the hands holding a package of Creamettes, and associated this head of a girl with the word “Creamettes” by placing it in line with and to the left of the word “Creamettes”, as it appears upon the carton labels. The evidence shows, in an advertisement appearing in the Twin City Commercial Bulletin, that Mother’s Macaroni Company began advertising the head of the girl in conjunction with the trademark Creamettes at least as early as March 15, 1913.

8. On October 17, 1912, Mother’s Macaroni Company made application -in the United States Patent Office for registration of its trade-mark “Creamettes” for macaroni, and on April 1, 1913, registration 90,-907 of the word “Creamettes” for macaroni was issued to Mother’s Macaroni Company. Said registration was duly transferred to the Creamette Company when it took over the business of Mother’s Macaroni Company, and has been renewed in the name of the Creamette Company.

9. On the 10th day of July, 1916, Mother’s Macaroni Company made application in the United States Patent Office for registration of the girl’s head with hands holding a package of macaroni for macaroni, and on March 27, 1917, the said trademark was registered as registration No. 115,988, and that registration sets forth that, “The trade-mark has been continuously used in the business of said corporation since about January 1, 1913,” and said trade-mark became the property of the Creamette Company, but has not been renewed.

10. On or about March 9, 1926’, plaintiff adopted and used upon cartons of Creamettes a representation of a somewhat different form of a head of a girl which did not have hands holding a package of macaroni, for macaroni, and substituted this new head of a girl upon its cartons in the same position in line with and at the left of the word “Creamettes” for the head of a girl of registration No. 115,988, which it then discontinued using. On April 16, [226]*2261926, before registration No. 115,988 had expired, plaintiff applied in the United States Patent Office for registration of the later girl’s head and on August 16, 1916, said trade-mark was registered as No. 216,574.

11. The new head of a girl of registration No. 216,574 differs from the head of the girl of registration No. 115,988 in that it employs dark hair about and across the forehead and. against the face of the girl, has the combination of a bonnet and a bow at the top to set off the face, said bow being colored red and associated with yellow and a dark green background, together with the showing of a slender curved neck all of which none of 'the other trade-marks did have.

12. Since January 1, 1913, to the present time, plaintiff and its predecessor, Mother’s Macaroni Company, has always associated with the word “Creamettes” on its labels, by printing it in a line at the left of said word, the head of a girl, first the head of registration No. 115,988 and later the head of registration No. 216,574, and the evidence shows that such an association of a trade-mark word and a trade-mark representation of the head of a girl was first made by plaintiff’s predecessor, Mother’s Macaroni Company, and has always been present on cartons in which the new type of quick-cooking macaroni has been marketed by plaintiff.

13. Beginning immediately after the adoption of the trade-mark Creamettes and the development of the new thin-walled quick-cooking elbow macaroni, said new product was placed on the market by Mother’s Macaroni Company bearing the trade-mark Creamettes, and after January 1, 1913, with the trade-mark of the first girl’s head. From that time until the present time, the said thin-walled quick-cooking elbow macaroni has been sold by plaintiff’s predecessor and by plaintiff under the trade-mark Creamettes in enormous quantities throughout the United States and in foreign countries. Always in all these sales since about January 1, 1913, the trademark Creamettes has been associated with the representation of the head of a girl in line with and to the left of the trademark Creamettes. For a period to about March 9, 1926, it was first, the girl of Registration No. 115,988, and after that time it was the girl’s head of Registration No. 216,574. A good will in said trademarks severally and in combination of very great value has resulted from said widespread and very large use and sales.

14.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Creamette Co. v. Conlin
191 F.2d 108 (Fifth Circuit, 1951)
Creamette Co. v. Conlin
92 F. Supp. 591 (S.D. Florida, 1950)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
74 F. Supp. 224, 76 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 93, 1947 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2056, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/creamette-co-v-minnesota-macaroni-co-mnd-1947.