Lepage Co. v. Russia Cement Co.

51 F. 941, 17 L.R.A. 354, 1892 U.S. App. LEXIS 1339
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedSeptember 15, 1892
DocketNo. 17
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 51 F. 941 (Lepage Co. v. Russia Cement Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lepage Co. v. Russia Cement Co., 51 F. 941, 17 L.R.A. 354, 1892 U.S. App. LEXIS 1339 (1st Cir. 1892).

Opinion

Putnam, Circuit Judge.

The court below instructed the jury, as a matter of law, that the words, “Manufactured by The LePage Company,” on defendant’s packages, were infringements. If it was proper |to instruct the jury to return a verdict for the plaintiff, it is unimportant whether the court expressed itself in that form or in the form which was actually used. We are of the opinion that the court correctly instructed the jury on this topic; and this, of course, renders unimportant all the other exceptions of the defendant below, unless so far as-they may touch the question of damages.

The essential facts are the same as stated succinctly in Cement Co. v. LePage, 147 Mass. 206, 17 N. E. Rep. 304, (decided June 10, 1888,) except the last step, which was taken subsequently to that ca’se. William M. LePage established at Gloucester the business of manufacturing and selling various kinds of glues, which he put on the market in connection with his own name, “LePage;” and the same became known to the trade and public as “LePage’s Glues,” having been extensively advertised and sold as such at home and abroad. In 1880, LePage and his associate formed a partnership under the style of Russia Cement Company. In 1882 the partnership was incorporated as the plaintiff below, and the assets and good will of its business, including the trademarks, were transferred to this corporation; and LePage took an active part in the business of the partnership during its existence, became treastirer of the corporation on its organization, held that office until the au[943]*943tumnof 1883, and continued active in the concern until February,, 1886, when he sold all his stock, and severed his relations thereto.

It is to be noted, therefore, that the plaintiff below has a threefold right': First. Whatever trade-marks were owned by LePage, or the partnership known as Russia Cement Company. Second. The good will which accompanied the trade-marks and the business, both’ by express contract and by implication of law. Menmdez v. Holt, 128 U. S. 514, 9 Sup. Ct. Rep. 143. Third. The fundamental right which every manufacturer and trader has at common law, and independently of all questions of trade-marks or good will, to be protected against those who offer to the public products or merchandise simulated as his. Lawrence Manuf’g Co. v. Tennessee Manuf’g Co., 138 U. S. 537, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 396; Chemical Co. v. Meyer, 139 U. S. 540, 547, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 625.

It is equitable that a ■ manufacturer or dealer, who has given reputation to any article, should have the privilege of realizing the fruits of his labors by transmitting his business and establishment, with the reputation which has attached to them, on his decease to his legatees or executors, or during his lifetime to purchasers; and it is also in accordance with the principles of law, and with justice to the community, that any trade-mark, including a surname, may be sold with the business or the establishment to which it is incident; because, while it may be that individual efforts give them their value at the outset, yet, afterwards, this is ordinarily made permanent as a part of the entire organization, or as appurtenant to the locality in which the business is established, and thenceforward depends less on the individual efforts of the originator than on the combined result of all which he created. Kidd v. Johnson, 100 U. S. 617; Chemical Co. v. Meyer, 139 U. S. 540, 548, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 625; Hoxie v. Chaney, 143 Mass. 592, 10 N. E. Rep. 713; Cement Co. v. LePage, 147 Mass. 206, 17 N. E. Rep. 304.

Chadwick v. Covell, 151 Mass. 190, 23 N. E. Rep. 1068, is properly distinguished in Chemical Co. v. Meyer. Trade-marks, good will, or rights to use the names of individuals, become, when sold, the property of "the person to whom transferred, and do not theroafterwards rest on mere contract; ¿nd, without any specification in the instrument of transfer, and merely as inherent to the essential rights of property, they must, with all their incidents, be protected by the courts in the hands of the transferee against all assaults and artifices. In Cement Co. v. LePage, ubi supra, the supreme judicial court of Massachusetts said (page 211, 147 Mass., and page 306, 17 N. E. Rep.) that it did not decide that Le-Page might not use the words “Liquid Glue,”or other appropriate words, to describe his product, or to state in that connection that he was himself the manufacturer. We have no occasion to deal with the long line of authorities, commencing with Croft v. Day, 7 Beav. 84, and Holloway v. Holloway, 13 Beav. 209, and ending with Chemical Co. v. Meyer, ubi supra, touching the ordinary inherent right of every person to the honest use of his own surname. These do not apply when the original right has been voluntarily parted with, as in the case at bar, nor have they been extended to corporations which have appropriated surnames for use in connection with proprietary articles; while they uphold with a [944]*944firm hand the fundamental doctrines of honesty and good faith as ap7 plied to this branch of the law, and have been vigilant in searching out and punishing evasions and artifices, even in connection with this primitive right. Neither are we embarrassed by Furnace Co. v. Le Barron, 127 Mass. 115. The opinion in that case was aimed at a mere question of fact, that'is, whether the letters and numbers used on certain parts of stoves were any part of the trade-mark in question. The court held, as a matter of fact, that they-were not. The- court also ruled that,'if in some instances purchasers from the vendees of the alleged infringer were deceived as to the origin of the goods, he was not responsible, using, however,' the following language:

“But, as he publishes to-the world the fact that he is the manufacturer of what he sells; and does not attach to his goods any label or mark apt to deceive subsequent purchasers from his vendees as to the origin of the goods, he cannot be regarded as infringing on the rights of the plaintiff.”

The case at bar will be found to turn on the facts that the label or mark used in this case, so far from being inapt to deceive subsequent purchasers; necessarily tended, under’the circumstances, to mislead the public, including subsequent purchasers, and also that persons of ordinary intelligence, honestly considering the natural results, must have foreseen that they would so mislead. ' It is,.however, the law that the fact -that the immediate vendees of one who- infringes are themselves not deceived is ordinarily of no consequence; and the offense is none the less because the original vendors and vendees may all be parties to the fraud. Wotherspoon v. Currie, L. R. 5 H. L. 508, 517, cited and approved in Lawrence Manuf'q Co. v. Tennessee Manufq Co., 138 U. S. 537, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 396.

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Bluebook (online)
51 F. 941, 17 L.R.A. 354, 1892 U.S. App. LEXIS 1339, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lepage-co-v-russia-cement-co-ca1-1892.