Domestic Engineering Co. v. Conover-Mast Publications, Inc.

154 F. Supp. 948, 114 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 141, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3196
District Court, N.D. Illinois·Decided June 7, 1957·No. Civ. A. No. 54 C 1649·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

IGOE, District Judge.

Findings Of Fact.

The Action and the Parties.

1. Plaintiff, Domestic Engineering Company, is an Illinois corporation, having its principal place of business in Chicago.

2. Defendant, Conover-Mast Publications, Inc., is a New York corporation authorized to do business in Illinois, having an office in Chicago and its principal place of business in New York City.

3. Jurisdiction is founded upon Federal Statutes, as follows:

(a) Section 1332 of Chapter 85 of Title 28, U.S.C.A. relating to controversies between citizens of different States, there being more than $3,000 in value, exclusive of interest and costs, reasonably involved.
(b) Section 1338 of Chapter 85 of Title 28, and Sections 1121 to 1126, inclusive, of Chapter 22 of Title 15 U.S.C.A., relating to trademarks; and
(c) Sections 101 and 112 of Chapter 2 of- Title 17, U.S.C.A., relating to copyrights.

4. Continuously since November 1937, plaintiff has published a periodical entitled “Institutions Magazine”, which covers subjects associated with mass feeding and mass housing and is circulated among hospitals, schools, hotels, motels, restaurants, cafeterias, YMCA’s, asylums, jails, clubs, colleges, railway [949]*949systems, steamship lines, and other establishments.

5. Continuously since November 1953, defendant has published a periodical entitled “Institutional Feeding and Housing,” which covers many of the same subjects covered by plaintiff’s magazine and is circulated among many of the same businesses and places as plaintiff’s magazine.

6. Defendant is engaged in direct competition with plaintiff by reason of its publication and circulation of its magazine, Institutional Feeding and Housing.

Copyright Infringements.

The Five Advertisements in the Promotion Booklet.

7. The five advertisements appearing qn pages 16, 17, 19, 20 and 21 of plaintiff’s Exhibit 38 were original literary and artistic creations of the plaintiff. They were prepared for exclusive use of Domestic Engineering publications and were not to be used elsewhere without the plaintiff’s permission.

8. The plaintiff was both the author and proprietor of each of the aforesaid five advertisements.

9. The defendant clipped copies of these five advertisements from copies of plaintiff’s magazines and, without permission from the plaintiff, reproduced them in a pre-publication promotion booklet which was circulated among advertisers and advertising agencies.

The Drawing in the Airesearch Article.

10. Plaintiff received from Airesearch Mfg. Co. a photostat of a floor plan blueprint, and plaintiff’s employees made extensive additions and changes in it so as to produce a finished drawing suitable for use in plaintiff’s magazine as an illustration accompanying an article. Some of the additions and changes made by plaintiff consisted of removing all' of the numerals which conformed to a legend in the blueprint; removing lettering and captions and substituting ■other captions; weighting of lines to show delineations between departments; laying Ben Day patterns on some of the black lines; setting in large type and adding arrows and lines to show flow of food, patrons and dishes for the purpose of illustrating and emphasizing a major theme of the article.

11. The services and work performed by plaintiff on the aforesaid drawing in the Airesearch article resulted in an original, artistic and creative effort by plaintiff, which was published in the June 1953 issue of Institutions Magazine.

12. Plaintiff is the author and proprietor of the finished Airesearch drawing resulting from its work and services, as aforesaid.

13. Defendant made a copy of plaintiff’s drawing which was identical, with the exception of the addition of the word “cashier” (which appears in a type different from the type Institutions Magazine used in all of the rest of the drawing),. and crosshatching of the arrows showing the flow of patrons. This copy was published without permission of plaintiff in the June 1955 issue of defendant’s magazine and circulated among its recipients.

The Drawing in the Ohio State Article.

14. Plaintiff received from Ohio State University a large detailed blueprint of a cafeteria floor plan. In the form received, it was not suitable as an illustration to accompany a magazine article. Plaintiff made a tracing of the outer delineations and spaces; removed many captions and changed or substituted others; ordered and set suitable type; ■added an identification caption, and otherwise made substantial and original changes to produce a suitable illustration for the article.

15. The services and work performed by plaintiff on the aforesaid drawing .in the Ohio State article resulted in an original, artistic and creative effort by plaintiff.

; 16. Plaintiff is the author and proprietor of the finished Ohio State draw[950]*950ing resulting from its work and services as aforesaid.

17. Plaintiff printed, published and circulated the Ohio State drawing in its February 1953 issue of Institutions Magazine.

18. Defendant, without permission of plaintiff, copied and appropriated plaintiff’s Ohio State drawing exactly as it appeared in plaintiff’s said magazine and printed, published and circulated it in the April 1955 issue of its magazine.

The Allstate Article.

19. Plaintiff published an article in its May 1954 issue of Institutions Magazine pertaining to the Allstate Insurance Company cafeteria. Defendant conceded at the trial that it copied and appropriated substantial portions of this article in an article published by it in its July 1954 issue, and it was guilty of copyright infringement with respect thereto.

The Four Flooring Articles.

20. One Dave E. Smalley wrote and sold to the plaintiff, receiving payment therefor, four articles on various flooring subjects. The articles were printed, published and circulated by plaintiff in its March 1951, June, November and December 1953 issues of Institutions Magazine.

21. Plaintiff is the proprietor of all of these articles.

22. Defendant, in its March 1954 and April 1955 issues, copied and appropriated the same material and employed much of the same terminology and combination of ideas and thoughts as appeared in plaintiff’s earlier articles.

23. Each of the various issues of plaintiff’s Institutions Magazine in which any and all of the advertisements, articles and drawings, heretofore referred to, were published, were copyrighted by the plaintiff under the provisions of section 3, Chapter 1, Title 17 U.S.C.A., and registration certificates were duly issued by the Register of Copyrights.

24. Proper notices of the fact of registration under section 3, Chapter 1, Title 17 U.S.C.A. appeared in each and every issue in which any of the said advertisements, articles and drawings were published.

Trade-Mark Infringement.

25. Plaintiff duly registered the name “Institutions” as a trade-mark in the United. States Patent Office on March 22, 1938. Such registration was made under the Act of 1905 (Title 15 U.S.C.A. § 81 et seq.).

26.

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Domestic Engineering Co. v. Conover-Mast Publications, Inc., 154 F. Supp. 948, 114 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 141, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3196 (N.D. Ill. 1957).

154 F. Supp. 948 (Domestic Engineering Co. v. Conover-Mast Publications, Inc.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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