Lighthouse Rug Co. v. Federal Trade Commission

35 F.2d 163, 3 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 104, 1929 U.S. App. LEXIS 2925
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedOctober 25, 1929
Docket4102
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 35 F.2d 163 (Lighthouse Rug Co. v. Federal Trade Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lighthouse Rug Co. v. Federal Trade Commission, 35 F.2d 163, 3 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 104, 1929 U.S. App. LEXIS 2925 (7th Cir. 1929).

Opinion

LINDLEY, District Judge.

The petitioner seeks to review an order entered by the Federal Trade Commission on July 24, 1928, ordering it to cease and desist from—

(1) Using or authorizing the use by others in interstate commerce of the word “Lighthouse” or the words “Light House” either independently or in conjunction or combination with any other word or words, letter, or letters, as a corporate or trade name or as a trade brand or designation in advertising or on labels, circulars, or other advertising matter in connection with the sale or distribution in interstate commerce of its products.

(2) Using or authorizing the use by others in interstate commerce in advertising matter, circulars, or otherwise of the words “Sole Distributors of the Chicago Lighthouse, an Institution for the Blind,” so as to confuse or mislead the purchasing public as to the origin of its products, or so as to import or imply that it is the sole distributor' of the products made at the Chicago lighthouse when sueh is not the fact.

(3) Using or authorizing the use by others in interstate commerce in advertising or upon business stationery or on labels, or otherwise, a pietorial representation of a lighthouse which simulates the emblem or symbol adopted and used by the Chicago Lighthouse to designate its product.

(4) Using or authorizing the use by others in connection with the sale or distribution of its products in interstate commerce any designation, representation, or description on labels or in advertising matter, or otherwise so as to import or imply that its products are made by blind people .when sueh is not the fact.

The complaint in pursuance of which this order was entered alleged that petitioner, a corporation located at Chicago, incorporated October 19, 1923, engaged in the manufacture, sale and distribution, in interstate commerce, of rugs, is using unfair methods of competition in sueh commerce; that the Improvement Association for Blind People, incorporated in 1910 as a corporation not for pecuniary profit, maintains in Chicago a trade school for training blind people, designated as “The Chicago lighthouse”; that from 1922 to 1926, with blind people as weavers, it had produced rugs at the rate of approximately 250 a week; that similarly designated training schools for blind people are being operated in other cities, including Duluth, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Syracuse, New York, and Seattle, in which rugs made by blind people are produced; and that “the word ‘Lighthouse’ when used in connection with rugs or other articles is understood by a substantial portion of the publie to indicate that they were produced by the work of blind people.”

It was further alleged that petitioner had purchased and resold the rugs of the Chicago Lighthouse until October 19, 1926, when the latter’s superintendent and the 16 blind people employed in the Lighthouse in making rugs were employed by petitioner in its factory for similar work; that petitioner manufactures upon power looms, operated by people who are not blind, other rugs similar in every way to those manufactured by the blind people; that petitioner labels all of said rugs “Light House Rugs,” wi^h the depiction of a lighthouse, and issues advertising matter containing the words, “Sole Distributors of The Chicago Lighthouse, an Institution for the Blind,” a cut of a lighthouse, illustrations of rugs and photographs of scenes showing blind persons weaving rugs; that said labels and advertising matter falsely imply that all of said rugs are produced by the labor of blind people, deceive a substantial portion of the purchasing public into the erroneous belief that all the rugs manufactured by the petitioner are produced by the labor of blind people, induce purchasers thereof to purchase the same in that belief and divert trade from the purchasers of truthfully marked rugs.

After petitioner had filed in this court its petition to review the order above set forth, the respondent commission filed an answer in the nature of a cross-bill, asking for an order of compliance, to which the petitioner filed an answer admitting that it had not complied with the order.

The petitioner admits that it may not use the words forbidden in paragraph 2 of the order, “Sole Distributors of The Chicago Lighthouse, an Institution for the Blind,” *165 and that it may not in any way imply that its products are made by blind people when such is not the fact, as forbidden in paragraph 4; but it contends that it may lawfully use the word “Light House” and the symbol thereof.

Whether the use of the word “Light House,” alone or in. combination as a corporate trade-name, and the picture of the lighthouse, as forbidden by paragraphs 1 and 3, is legally wrongful depends primarily upon whether or not the finding of the respondent, to the effect, in substance, that the word “Light House,” as a term applied to rugs, has acquired amongst a substantial portion of the trade a secondary meaning, i. e., rugs made by the blind in charitable or quasi charitable institutions for the blind, called “Lighthouses,” has the substantial support by evidence required by the law. Philip Carey Mfg. Co. v. Federal Trade Commission (C. C. A.) 29 F.(2d) 49; Chamber of Commerce of Minneapolis v. Federal Trade Commission (C. C. A.) 280 F. 45; and Arkansas Wholesale Grocers’ Ass’n v. Federal Trade Commission (C. C. A.) 18 F.(2d) 866.

Such findings of facts, if substantially supported by the evidence, are, under section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 USCA § 45), conclusive. The Supreme Court in Federal Trade Commission v. Curtis Publishing Co., 260 U. S. 568, 43 S. Ct. 210, 213, 214, 67 L. Ed. 408, says: “Manifestly, the court must inquire whether the Commission’s findings of fact are supported by evidence. If so supported, they are conclusive. * * ® I think it of high importance that we should scrupulously comply with the evident intention of Congress that the Federal Commission be made the fact-finding body and that the Court should in its rulings preserve the Board’s character as such, and not interject its views of the facts where there is any conflict in the evidence.”

An examination of the record discloses that in 1910 the New York institute for the blind named and designated its building “The Lighthouse.” Its founder later established the Paris “Lighthouse” for men blinded in the World War. Similar associations, known and designated as “Lighthouses,” have been established in many cities of the United States and have come to be known by the public as workshops in which blind people are instructed in useful occupations, particularly rug weaving, as that work has been found to be the most practical and suitable for such persons. The New York institute, in connection with the word “Lighthouse,” since 1910 has used the picture of a lighthouse as a symbol to designate its workshops, its summer place in Cornwall, and its camp in New Jersey, all maintained for blind people. It has used the word “Lighthouse” and the symbol upon its advertising, literature, labels, stationery, folders, and rugs, which have reached apparently thousands of people.

The workshop conducted by the St. Louis County Association for the Blind, in Duluth, Minn., since 1919, and similar workshops for blind people operated in Seattle, Wash., Buffalo, and Syracuse, have used and are using the word “Lighthouse” upon labels, tags, and stationery.

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35 F.2d 163, 3 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 104, 1929 U.S. App. LEXIS 2925, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lighthouse-rug-co-v-federal-trade-commission-ca7-1929.