Harvey v. Lamoureaux

5 Ohio N.P. 473
CourtHuron County Court of Common Pleas
DecidedNovember 23, 1894
StatusPublished

This text of 5 Ohio N.P. 473 (Harvey v. Lamoureaux) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Huron County Court of Common Pleas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Harvey v. Lamoureaux, 5 Ohio N.P. 473 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1894).

Opinion

WILDMAN, J.

The case of Samuel L. Harvey v. H. P. Lamoureaux and others presents an interesting question. The plaintiff, Samuel L. Harvey, in his amended petition alleges “that he is now, and through the last ten years has been, engaged in the business of manufacturing agricultural plows, at the township of Fairfield, in the county of Huron and state of Ohio; that he is now the sole owner of, and during all that time has nsed, as trade marks of his said business, the words, ‘Fairfield Plow’, and ‘New Fairfield Plow’, and neither have said defendants, nor has either of them, any right or interest whatever therein.

“Before, and during all that time, said trade marks were not, nor was either of them, used apart from the plaintiff,nor is either of them now used by any other 'manufacturer or dealer, at said Fairfield or any other place, except the attempt of the defendants to unlawfully appropriate the same, hereinafter set forth.

“The plows so manufactured by the plaintiff, have been sold by him, his agents and vendees, extensively through the states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and in other parts of the country, during the said ten years; and are now being largely made and marketed by him. Said plows so made and sold by him, under his said trade-marks, have acquired a high reputation by reason of their excellence, and have been through the said ten years, apd now are, the source of great profit to him, being known to the public and to the buyers thereof by their said names and trade-marks of ‘Fairfield Plow’ and ‘New Fairfield Plow!’

“The defendants well knowing the localities in which plaintiff had created a demand for his manufactures, well knowing the premines, but willfully disregarding the plaintiff’s rights tbereiD, have been, and now are. making and preparing to make, at Shelby, Richland county, Ohio, and are offering for sale, plows in imitation of the plaintiff’s said manufactures, so similar in style and appearance thereto as to mislead and deceive plain[474]*474tiffs customers and the public generally, which they are advertising and publishing for sale under the name and with the pretended trade-mark of ‘New Fairfield Plow’, and are endeavoring to engage the agents of the plaintiff to sell them, and by all means m their power to obtain a market for their said imitation, with the purpose and result of enabling said defendants to pass the same off on the public and divers purchasers, as plows manufactured by the plaintiff.

“Said imitation is calculated to deceive, and does deceive, the purchasers, dealers in, and users of, the plows so made by the plaintiff and the public; and is now inducing divers persons to contract for the defendants’ said product, so marketed and advertised as the ‘New Fairfield Plow’ by them, in the belief that they were made by the plaintiff, greatly to the diminution and loss of his said business and profits.. By his continuous and rightful use of said trademarks through ten years, they had become identified with the source of their manufacture, and this effort of the defendants to put upon the markets their own products under the name ‘New Fairfield Plow’, is an artifice and deception on the public, and infringement of the plaintiff’s trade-marks, and has been a great injury to him in his business operations, to the damage of the plaintiff five hundred dollars.”

The plaintiff further alleges that at a certain date he requested the defendants to desist from their said infringement of his said trade-marks, but that they refused to do so, and on the contrary, avowed their purpose to continue, and that they are about to, and will, unless restrained by the court, continue to infringe on the plaintiff’s rights, and he prays for a temporary retraining order, enjoining the defendants from the further use of his said trade-marks, “Fair-field Plow” and “New Fairfield Plor’, and each of them, in their manufacture, advertisement and salo of plows made by or for them and in all their business therein; that on final hearing, a perpetual injunction may be granted with judgment against them for said five hundred dollars damages and the costs, and that the plaintiff may have general relief.

The demurrer to this amended petition is general: “That it does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. ” The question priucipallv raised in argument is, that the plaintiff has no right to the exclusive use of a geographical name as a trade-mark; that the name “Fair-field” is a geograpical name to which the plaintiff has no exclusive right. Numerous authorities have been cited to the court. I will not attempt to review all of them in passing upon this demurrer, but because of its interesting nature, I will call attention to the language of some decisions which I deem especially pertinent to the argument which has been made.

Counsel for defendants, in his argument in behalf of the demurrer, cites the text of the 26 Encyclopedia of Law, pages 327 to 329, and the note on page 329, and the various authorities which are referred to in said note. Referring first, to page 327, where the text writer is treating of trademarks, we have the sub-title, “Geographical Terms, a. General rule in the United States. It must be considered as settled in the United States that no one can apply the name of a district or country to an article of commerce, and thereby acquire such an exclusive right to the application as to prevent others inhabiting the district or dealing in similar articles coming from the district from truthfully using the same designation. The nature of geographical names is such that they cannot point to the right (personal origin) or ownership of the articles of trade to which they are applied. They point only to the place of production, not to the producer, and could they be appropriated exclusively, their appropriation would result in mischievious monopolies. Many of the older cases held that a resident of a locality had rights in the name of the same which would entitle him to enjoin any person not residing from using it to his injury, and for the purpose, or with the danger, of deceiving the public. But these cases are considerably weakened by a recent decision wherein the general doctrine is laid down that before a claimant to a trade-mark can enjoin another using the same without his license, he must show that either he or others joined with him in the suit, or who could be joined with him, have an exclusive right to employ the particular trade-mark for the particular purpose, and that this state of facts can never exist in the case of a geographical term which represents such a district or place that others might with equal right establish a similar business at the same place, and designate their goods truthfully as emanating from that particular place.”

A glance at the foot-note to which reference is made by the text writer to ascertain the recent decision to which he refers. reveals the fact that he is citing the Cement Company case in the 44 Federal Reporter at page 277. He first refers, it is true, in support of the text, in his note, to the case of Delaware etc. Canal Co. v. Clark, 13 Wallace, 327; but that is by no means a recent case, nor does it tend in the direction of holding the legal views expresed in the text to which reference is made, as embodied in the “recent decision”. The case in the 44 Federal Reporter is manifestly the one to which reference is made. It holds: ‘A suit to restrain the use of the name ‘Rosendale Cement’.in the denomination of cement manufactured and sold by defendants, cannot be maintained, though such name [475]

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Bluebook (online)
5 Ohio N.P. 473, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harvey-v-lamoureaux-ohctcomplhuron-1894.