Lever Bros. Co. v. Sitroux Co.

109 F.2d 445, 27 C.C.P.A. 858, 44 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 357, 1940 CCPA LEXIS 38
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedFebruary 5, 1940
DocketPatent Appeal 4194
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 109 F.2d 445 (Lever Bros. Co. v. Sitroux Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Customs and Patent Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lever Bros. Co. v. Sitroux Co., 109 F.2d 445, 27 C.C.P.A. 858, 44 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 357, 1940 CCPA LEXIS 38 (ccpa 1940).

Opinions

BLAND, Associate Judge.

Appellant has appealed here from a decision of the Commissioner of Patents, affirming that the Examiner of Interferences, dismissing an opposition brought by appellant against the registration by appellee of the word “Sit-Ru-Lux” as a trade-mark for “Toilet Tissues” (toilet paper). The opposition is based upon the prior use and registration of the term “Lux” as a trademark for toilet soap, such prior use and registration being clearly shown.

The tribunals of the Patent Office pointed out that the differences in the marks and the differences in the characteristics and uses of the goods warranted the conclusion that there would be no likelihood of confusion in a statutory sense.

Appellant here, after referring to the term “Lux” which appears in the mark of each of the parties, has the following to say (omitting record citations) regarding the similarity of the goods upon which the marks are used:

“(1) Both toilet paper and toilet soap are ordinary household articles which are [446]*446put up in small packages and sold for a "small price.

“(2) Both are sold by the same wholesalers and jobbers and by the same retailers. In retail stores these articles are associated and are sold in the same departments.

“(3) Both are purchased by the same classes of customers.

“(4) Both are used for the same purpose, to wit, the cleaning of the human body. They are kept and used in the same room in the average household. It is a matter of common knowledge that in many instances soap is used to supplement or complete the work of the paper. That toilet soap and toilet paper are associated in the minds of those using them (a large majority of the entire population) is apparent.”

Appellant also argues that there are additional facts which enhance the likelihood of confusion and states that appellant’s soap is advertised as “toilet soap”; that it is generally known that appellant has advertised using the soap to remove stale cosmetics, dust and dirt from the pores of the skin, and that the dirt and stale cosmetics are often wiped off by facial tissues to which reference is sometimes made as “toilet tissues” and which tissues are manufactured and sold under a different trade name by appellee.

There is no contention here that appel-lee’s mark is used on the character of so-called “toilet tissues” which are used to remove stale cosmetics from the face, although there is some proof in the record to the effect that the Sitroux Company does manufacture a so-called “facial tissue” which is labeled “Sitroux” but which is not sold under the mark “Sit-Ru-Lux” involved here. -

Appellant in its' brief refers to the term “toilet tissues,” on which the trade-mark “Sit-Ru-Lux” is used, as being “toilet paper,” and stresses the fact that appellee has used the phrase “toilet tissue made of ‘Sitroux’ facial tissue” on the labels of its toilet paper rolls, and that this consideration will enhance the likelihood of confusion.

While the appellee’s application for registration refers to its goods as “toilet tissues” its brief defines the term in the following language: “toilet paper, sometimes termed ‘toilet tissues’, and sold by it in the usual rolls.” On opposer’s Exhibit 3, which is a label which goes around a roll of appellee’s toilet paper, appears the following : “The luxury of facial tissue made into toilet tissue.” It appears of record that there is upon the market a facial tissue and a toilet paper made by the same manufacturer and bearing the same trademark “Aimcee.” It is also emphasized here by appellant that its mark was first registered in 1900 and that it has spent $25,000,-000 in advertising its “Lux” toilet soap and $35,000,000 in advertising “Lux” soap flakes and that such advertisement took place “extensively in magazines and newspapers but also by means of practically every other media available for advertising such as the radio, couponing, window,’ store and shelf displays, car cards, subway and elevated posters, miscellaneous programs and trade paper advertisements” and that “This advertising has been national in scope and has covered practically the entire United States.”

The Examiner of Interferences in his decision, in referring to the facial tissue subject matter, had the following to say: “In the opposer’s brief considerable reference is made to certain merchandise not here in issue, namely, what is known to the trade as facial tissue, a paper product adapted for use in the removal of cosmetics. It may be that such merchandise, as the opposer contends, is to some extent related to the before mentioned goods of the parties, but in any event, this question is deemed irrelevant and not material here.”

As the issue is presented here, it is our view that the Examiner of Interferences was correct in the above-quoted statement, ;and that the issue presented here involves a consideration of the- trade-mark “Lux” used on toilet soap, and the trade-mark “Sit-Ru-Lux” used on toilet paper, and that the term “toilet paper” is not to be understood as including facial tissues.

It may be said at the outset that in cases like that at bar where the registration of one mark over a similar mark for goods of the same class is involved, there is rarely any decision of any court that is sufficiently analogous to be absolutely controlling. One reason this is true is because, as has been frequently stated, the question of confusion resulting from the similarity of the marks and goods is largely one of individual opinion. Where the circumstances in a decided case differ, even only to a slight degree, from those in a case to be decided, [447]*447it is often difficult to determine just what effect those differences should be given.

And so it is in the case at bar where we have the contest between “Sit-Ru-Lux” for toilet paper and “Lux” for toilet soap. There is a difference in the marks and there is a difference in the goods. It is true that appellee who seeks to register the term “Sit-Ru-Lux” has taken the entire mark of the appellant and used the same in connection with other syllables representing the phonetic spelling of its corporate name upon goods which obviously belong to the same class. It being a close question as to whether the stated circumstances suggest the likelihood that statutory confusion will result from the concurrent use of the two marks in the manner stated, there might be much difference of opinion among reasonable minds.

After much consideration, we are of the opinion that there is such a similarity of the marks (the whole of appellant’s mark appearing in that of appellee) that concurrent use of the same on the goods of the respective parties is likely to lead to confusion within the meaning of the trademark statute. 15 U.S.C.A. § 81 et seq.. Certainly there is at least a reasonable doubt upon the question, and the familiar rule applies that such doubt should be resolved against the applicant who has a wide field from which to select its mark to distinguish its goods if it really wishes to distinguish them and not reap where it has not sown.

A lengthy discussion of the cited and other cases, under the circumstances and for the reasons before stated, is not here required. However, some cases cited by the appellee in which registration was granted may have some bearing on the issue presented and certain cases cited by appellant would seem to have about the same bearing on the other side of the quesf tion.

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Lever Bros. Co. v. Sitroux Co.
109 F.2d 445 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1940)

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Bluebook (online)
109 F.2d 445, 27 C.C.P.A. 858, 44 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 357, 1940 CCPA LEXIS 38, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lever-bros-co-v-sitroux-co-ccpa-1940.