Feder v. Brundo

5 Ohio N.P. 275
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court·Decided January 31, 1898·Published

Opinion

NEFF, J.

The several questions submitted for decision in this case arise upon a motion, filed by plaintiffs, praying for the allowance of a temporary restraining order.

The petition of plaintiffs, among other things, avers, — and I limit my recitals now from the petition, to such matters as are immediately pertinent to the question to be decided — the petition avers that Emanuel Feder and Marcus Feder, partners doing business as Feder Brothers, are engaged in the business of manufacturing cigars in the city of Cleveland, and, in connection with such business, conduct a factory for the manufacture of cigars; that they are the sole and exclusive manufacturers of cigars of a certain quality and pattern, known as “London Whiffs,’*’ and have been and were such for a long time prior to the filing of the petition in this case; that one of the members of the company had obtained letters-patent whereby he acquired the exclusive right to the manufacture and use of certain boxes, and the petition describes such boxes and the manner in which the cigars or stogies were put up and tv-e manner in which they were put into such boxes, ten cigars or stogies being wrapped together and enclosed in tin-foil.

The petition also contains a copy of the label or design which was bound about these packages of ten.

The petition also recites that the defendant has infringed and is infringing the exclusive right of the plaintiffs to the use of the label or design thereon, which the plaintiffs have for a long time been accustomed to wrap about or put over the tin-foil enclosing the packages of ten stogies or cigars.

It is averred also in the petition that the defendant knew at the time' he so imitated the label of plaintiffs, that they (the plaintiffs) were vested with the exclusive right to the use of such labels,- and that the defendant, by the use of such labels which, as plaintiffs aver, were mere colorable imitations of plaintiffs’' trade-mark, knew that they were such' mere colorable imitations, and that hi® use of them was an infringement of plaintiffs’ right to the possession and enjoyment of benefits accruing to them from their trade-mark.

This is substantially what is averred by the plaintiffs in their petition.

The first question that arises is whether the label in question is the subject of a trade-mark; and next, whether the defendant has colorably imitated such label in such a way as to constitute an infringement upon such trade-mark and of the rights of plaintiffs with respect thereto. And, third, whether any privilege was-granted by plaintiffs to defendants to use the trade-mark or label in question. The-first (question presented is, therefore, what is the subject of a trade-mark. I find in section 1085, vol. 2, High on Injunctions, this statement: “To warrant the exercise of equitable jurisdiction, in these cases, ” referring to cases arising from alleged infringement of trade-marks, “there must be, first, the existence of a trade-mark; second, the fact of an imitaion, either directly or with such variations as are merely colorable; and third, the fact that such imitation is made-without the license, or acquiescence of the owner.’’ Citing in this connection, the case of Kinahan v. Bolton, 15 Ir. Ch., 75. This seems to me to be a very intelligent analysis of the elements involved ire the question at bar. So that the first, question that is to be determined, is-whether the evidence submitted upon the; hearing establishes the fact that plaintiffs were the owners of, and entitled to, the exclusive use and enjoyment of the label or trade-mark in question; and' whether such label, is, of itself, the subject of a trade-mark.

I am satisfied from the proof, without-making any special reference to the details of tne evidence, that for the space of two years or more they had adopted! and used the label or device in question;that they were the originators or inventors of such label or device; that they had had the exclusive use of it; and that* therefore, if the device, in itself, is such as to constitute it a trade-mark, I am of' the opinion that the evidence establishes, all of the preliminary facts necessary to-give plaintiff the right to its exclusive-use, assuming, of course, that it is, in itself, the subject of a trade mark, that, is, that it is the subject of the acquisition of an exclusive right which is entitled to protection.

I omit from the consideration of the-case the boxes which were offered in evidence, upon which letters-patent were= [276]*276obtained, because the infringements of such rights as plaintiff acquired and possessed with reference to the use of a patentable article, are questions of which this court cannot properly take cognizance; nor am I disposed to give serious consideration to the contention tnat plaintiff has acquired any exclusive right to pack cigars or stogies in the manner in which these are packed,because I find that the holdings of the courts have been .almost uniformly to the effect that the mere manner of wrapping goods is not the subject of an acquisition of exclusive right to its use, and, therefore, no monopoly can be acquired resting upon the mere invention of some original owner, of packing goods.

Now, what is necessary to constitute a label the subject of a trade-mark? In the ease of Kohler et al., appellants, v. Sanders et al., respondents, 122 N. Y. page 65, is a very well considered and well reasoned opinion upon the general subject of trade-marks; and, in this case, I find the test to be this (quoting now from the 72nd page, of the opinion): “In referring' to the principles relating to trademarks,and upon which their efficiency as such depends, it may be observed that there is no exclusive right to represent iby them an idea, nor can there be an exclusive appropriation of that which is descriptive of the articles to which they -are attached, or that which indicates their ingredients, mode of composition, characteristic properties, quality or nature.” Citing Morgan v. Iaxwell, 89 N. Y., 292; Amoskeag Mfg. Co. v. Spear, 2 Sanford, 599; Caswell v. Davis, 58 N. Y., 223.

So that it may be said that any label •which is merely descriptive of the ingredients, mode of composition, characteris tic properties, quality or nature of the article to which it is attached, is not the subject of a trade-mark.

I find by the authorities generally, that in order to render a label such device as to make it the subject of a trade-mark, it must be fanciful or arbitrary, and have no reference whatever to the ingredients, mode of composition, characteristic properties, quality or nature of the article to which it is attached.

Recurring now to the question at bar, I am satisfied that the label, an infringement of which is sought to be prevented by injunction in this case, entitled “London Whiffs,” is a device purely fanciful and arbitrary, and. in no way, suggestive of the color, ingredients, mode of composition, of the a”ticle to which such label is attached, and that, therefore, the label is itself the subject of a trade-mark or exclusive right to a trade-mark. The evidence establishing, then, that tne plaintiffs had used this device for the term of two years or more prior to its adoption by the defendant, and it being-now apparent that it is the subject of a trade-mark, that is, that it is a subject that the plaintiffs could acquire the exclusive right to use, we are remitted to the next question in order, that is, whether the label adopted by the defendants, and now used by the defendants, is a colorable imitation of the label of plaintiffs.

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Feder v. Brundo, 5 Ohio N.P. 275 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1898).

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