Dietz v. Horton Mfg. Co.

170 F. 865, 96 C.C.A. 41, 1909 U.S. App. LEXIS 4752
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedMay 22, 1909
DocketNo. 1,840
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 170 F. 865 (Dietz v. Horton Mfg. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dietz v. Horton Mfg. Co., 170 F. 865, 96 C.C.A. 41, 1909 U.S. App. LEXIS 4752 (6th Cir. 1909).

Opinion

WARRINGTON, Circuit Judge.

This was a suit in equity of the-Horton AI an ufa during Company, appellee, brought in the Circuit' Court of the United States, Southern District of Ohio, against Con-' rad Dietz, who died later, and revivor was had in the name of his administrators, appellants. Jurisdiction was obtained through diversity of citizenship. The bill was based on alleged infringement of a" [866]*866trade-mark claimed by appellee and also on alleged unfair competition. Upon hearing in the court below on the bill, answer, and proofs, a decree was rendered finding in favor of appellee, and that Conrad Dietz had been guilty of unfair competition. An injunction was granted against appellants, enjoining further use of the trade-mark, ordering that all labels, etc., be delivered to appellee to be destroyed, and referring the cause to a master to take an account, specifying the objects. Appeal was allowed and perfected.

The first question arising upon the record, as we view it is whether either of the original parties to the suit was entitled to the exclusive use of the word “Globe” as a trade-mark. The pleadings show that each party claimed as against the other the exclusive right to the mark. Appellee based its claim on adoption and use by one Heber-ger, a washing machine manufacturer of Cincinnati, Ohio, who, as averred in the bill, adopted the mark on the 1st day of June, 1897, and duly transferred it to appellee in 1901. Dietz based his claim on two grounds. One was that he had continuously used the mark since 1893. The other ground was an alleged purchase of the mark by him in May, 1903, of one James H. Taylor, by written transfer, a copy of which is attached to the answer as an exhibit. Thus an issue of priority of adoption and use was made between the parties. The court below found that the weight of the evidence established priority in complainant below.

As regards the uses made by the parties themselves, we should not interfere with this finding. But upon the claim made by Dietz that he had acquired a right to the mark through Taylor it was developed that Taylor had adopted and used the word “Globe” as a trade-mark in the manufacture and sale of washing machines as early as 1885, and that the mark was continuously used thereafter either by himself or with his sanction until the early part of 1902. Taylor, who seems to have been engaged in and otherwise connected with the manufacture of washing machines, was called by Dietz as a witness, and testified thus:

“Q. 13. Please state, if you know, who originated and first adopted the word ‘Globe,’ and the representation of a globe as a trade-mark for washing machines. A. 1 did. Q. 14. About when? A. About 1885. Q. 15. Please state how long you continued to be the owner of the trade-mark ‘Globe,’ which you originated and adopted for washing machines. A. Continuously thereafter until X sold or made an assignment to Conrad Dietz. Q. 16. Please state how you used said trade-mark upon washing machines. A. I first used it as a stencil on the washing machine, with a globe and the word ‘Globe’ through the center of the globe; afterwards had labels printed to represent a globe, with the word ‘Globe’ through the center of said globe. * • * Q. 60. Please state, if you remember, where you were located in 1885, and under what name you were operating in the washing machine business at the time you designed and adopted the trade-mark ‘Globe’ for washing machines, as you have testified. A. Was located on Erie street, west side, between Hamilton and Tecumseh streets [Toledo]. First as J. H. Taylor; afterwards American Churn Company.”

Another witness, a salesman of the BostWick-Braun Company, one Joseph U. Tillman, of Toledo, was called by Dietz and testified in December, 1904, as follows:

“Q. 18. Please state, if you know, whether your company ever sold any of the machines called the ‘Globe Washer’ as illustrated on said page (refer[867]*867ring t> exhibit), and, if so, about when they commenced to sell washing machines so marked, and how long they have continued to do so. A. I can remember of them selling the Globe washing machines 11 years ago. I bought one myself at that time from Bostwiek-Braun Company. I remember of them selling machines up to the lime they sold out.”

As late as April, 3903, Dietz sought erroneously to have public use proceedings instituted in the Patent Office for the purpose of showing that the mark belonged to the public. In re Dietz, 104 O. G. 852. In an affidavit filed in that proceeding, Dietz stated that he “received in the regular course of business” in each of the years 3893 to 1899, inclusive, a publication issued by the Farm Implement News Company of Chicago, called the “Buyers’ Guide,” and that in each of these publications, on pages stated, it appeared that under the title “Washing Machines” was the following: “Union Manufacturing Company, Toledo, Ohio, American, Western Globe.”

Appellee sought to meet such prior use of the mark in several ways. One was that stenciling or otherwise placing upon the side of the machine the figure of a globe, with the word “Globe” printed across it, was not sufficient to establish a trade-mark. For instance, there appears plainly oil the side of the machine, in at least two exhibits showing cuts of the “Western Washer,” the figure of a globe with the word “Globe” printed across it; the globe being placed under the word “Western” and above the word “Washer.” The claim is that the distinguishing mark is comprised in the words “Western Washer,” rather than in the figure containing the word “Globe.” We do not, however, discover any denial that the mark in dispute was used in the way mentioned.

If the affidavit of Dietz before alluded to can he relied on, the objection just noticed is met by the advertisements in the “Buyers’ Guide,” for there the words used to describe the washing machines were “American, Western Globe.” A sample of the “Buyers’ Guide,” in the form of a printed pamphlet for the year 1893, is found in the record and corroborates Dietz as to that year.

Tillman testified as to the use of the word “Globe” thus:

“Q. 26. Please state, if you know, how said washing machines were known to the trade. A. They were known as the ‘Globe Washer’ in my time, when selling the trade; manufactured by the Union Manufacturing Company.”

Another way in which appellee endeavored to meet the claim in respect to Taylor’s adoption and use of the mark was that Taylor had transferred his business, including the mark, to a certain company, and that the mark had passed then by due transfers, through certain transferees, to the Union Manufacturing Company mentioned in the “Buyers’ Guide,” and that the assets of that company were sold in March, 1902, to persons other than Taylor, and the mark abandoned. Taylor, however, claimed in his testimony that he had never parted with his right to the trade-mark. But the important inquiry is whether all this does not show that neither Dietz nor He-berger had a right to adopt the word “Globe” as a characteristic exclusively to distinguish his goods.

In Columbia Mill Co. v. Alcorn, 350 U. S. 460, 14 Sup. Ct. 151, 37 L. Ed. 1144, the company was engaged in the manufacture of [868]*868flour and.it brought the suit to restrain defendants from using the word “Columbia” in a brand placed on packages of flour sold by them.

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Bluebook (online)
170 F. 865, 96 C.C.A. 41, 1909 U.S. App. LEXIS 4752, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dietz-v-horton-mfg-co-ca6-1909.