National Bank of Commerce v. Shaklee Corp.

503 F. Supp. 533, 207 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 1005, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13236
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Texas
DecidedJuly 16, 1980
DocketCiv. A. SA-74-CA-12
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 503 F. Supp. 533 (National Bank of Commerce v. Shaklee Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
National Bank of Commerce v. Shaklee Corp., 503 F. Supp. 533, 207 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 1005, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13236 (W.D. Tex. 1980).

Opinion

BOOTLE, * Senior District Judge:

This court, having considered oral testimony, numerous exhibits and deposition testimony introduced at a three-day nonjury trial, extensive briefs on law and fact, and the parties’ proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law, is now ready to decide the numerous factual and legal issues presented in this case.

I. The Actors

The numerous actors in this case and their sometimes complicated relationships prompts a discussion of each in an effort to give background to the rest of this opinion.

Ms. Heloise Bowles was the original plaintiff in this action. She sued the Shaklee Corporation for damages, alleging invasion of privacy, misappropriation of her name and likeness, copyright infringement, trademark violation, and unfair competition, arising out of Shaklee’s causing the publication of a special edition of Heloise’s book “All Around the House” and of certain advertisements or articles in Shaklee’s magazine, the Shaklee Survey. During the *536 pendency of this suit, Heloise died and the executor of her estate, the National Bank of Commerce, was substituted as party plaintiff.

Heloise authored a newspaper column entitled “Hints From Heloise” which appeared daily in some 580 to 600 newspapers in the United States and abroad. In addition, she authored several books dealing with the same topics dealt with in her column. The books and the column are collections of household hints intended to make household chores easier. The column began in 1959 when Heloise started a readers’ exchange in a local Honolulu, Hawaii newspaper. Shortly thereafter, she was successful in selling the column to a few other newspapers located in Texas. The success of Heloise’s column attracted King Features Syndicate, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Hearst Corporation, which syndicated the column and promoted it to its present nationwide distribution.

The column depends heavily on receiving and publishing helpful ideas contributed by readers. Some 4,000 to 5,000 letters per month provide these hints. On at least one occasion, 100,000 letters were received in one month. The column’s success is at least partly attributable to certain policies followed by Heloise. One of these policies was never to refer to any product by brand name; instead a generic name was used. Thus, Heloise never, in her long career, endorsed any specific product. A second policy followed by Heloise was to test each hint before including it in her column so that she could give assurance that each would work.

Heloise’s success as author of the column has brought her nationwide recognition. She has been featured in articles published in the New York Times, Life magazine, and Fortune. After her death, the New Yorker published a letter from an admirer recounting her career.

The Hearst Corporation was added as a party plaintiff to this action as a result of early procedural skirmishes not particularly relevant at this point. Hearst adopted the contentions of Heloise but did not ask for damages on its own behalf. Hearst’s wholly-owned subsidiary, King Features Syndicate, has held rights to Heloise’s column and books since the early 1960’s. Pursuant to those contractual rights, King Features granted all publishing rights in the books authored by Heloise to Prentice-Hall. Prentice-Hall in turn granted paperback publishing rights to Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. The contracts between Pocket Books and Prentice-Hall require that Pocket Books obtain the permission of King Features for any premium or commercial use of Heloise’s books. The pertinent contract between Heloise and King Features requires that King Features obtain her permission for any commercial use of her books.

The Benjamin Company is a publisher that acts as a special projects sales office for Pocket Books with responsibility for promoting bulk and special project sales of books owned by Pocket Books. Over a number of years, Benjamin Company has caused the bulk and premium sale of several of Heloise’s books. Armstrong and Associates is an advertising firm in California which is associated with Benjamin Company as a commissioned sales agent for that area. Tom Golden is employed by Armstrong and Associates and in that capacity brought Benjamin Company and the defendant Shaklee Corporation together on the purchase and sale of a special edition of Heloise’s book All Around the House.

The Shaklee Corporation is a direct sales organization which manufactures and sells household cleaners, food supplements, and cosmetics. These three categories together include approximately 100 different products. Shaklee operates through a nationwide organization of independent distributors, numbering approximately 240,000, who buy Shaklee products for resale and for their own use. These distributors are often husband and wife teams.

II. The Facts

The events which culminated in this lawsuit began sometime in the early fall of 1972 when Tom Golden of Armstrong and *537 Associates contacted Shaklee Corporation in an attempt to interest Shaklee in the purchase of a number of one of Heloise’s books as a promotional scheme for Shaklee. The proposal offered to Shaklee included adapting the book as a special Shaklee edition by including Shaklee artwork and messages on the front and rear covers and in the text. In January 1973, Shaklee accepted the proposal and agreed to order 100,000 copies of the special edition. By letter dated January 19,1973 Ted Benjamin, Executive Vice-President of the Benjamin Company, sought permission from King Features, as required by Pocket Book’s contract with Prentice-Hall, to proceed with the premium sale of Heloise’s Housekeeping Hints book to Shaklee. The letter asks, “May we have your okay for the program, based on the payment of your standard $1000 fee in connection with the use of Heloise’s book?” John Wright, Director of Merchandising and Special Projects at King Features, approved the proposal as outlined in the letter. The letter did not refer to the modifications and additions planned to transform the book into a special Shaklee edition. Mr. Benjamin was at that time under the impression that Shaklee wished to use Heloise’s book entitled Housekeeping Hints but was shortly made- aware that the book desired by Shaklee was Heloise’s All Around the House. King Features was not notified of the change in books until a July 12,1973 letter from Ted Benjamin requesting that the $1000 fee be invoiced. The change apparently went unnoticed even then by King Features as the invoice issued in response to that letter attributes the $1000 fee to “use of Heloise’s Housekeeping Hints Book.”

Shaklee’s promotional scheme involved the purchase of the books at 38 cents per copy and resale to their distributors at 50 cents per copy. The distributors were then free to sell or give away the books to customers as they desired. As a part of this promotion scheme, Shaklee included an advertisement in the February 1973 issue of the Shaklee Survey, which is a magazine published by Shaklee for use by its distributors, to induce distributors to purchase the books.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Stephen W. Clark v. Dillard's Inc. and the Campbell Agency
460 S.W.3d 714 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015)
1-800 CONTACTS, INC. v. WhenU. Com
309 F. Supp. 2d 467 (S.D. New York, 2003)
Wells Fargo & Co. v. WhenU. Com, Inc.
293 F. Supp. 2d 734 (E.D. Michigan, 2003)
U-Haul International, Inc. v. WhenU.com, Inc.
279 F. Supp. 2d 723 (E.D. Virginia, 2003)
Seifer v. PHE, Inc.
196 F. Supp. 2d 622 (S.D. Ohio, 2002)
Brown v. Ames
201 F.3d 654 (Fifth Circuit, 2000)
Parks v. LaFace Records
76 F. Supp. 2d 775 (E.D. Michigan, 1999)
Choe v. Fordham University School of Law
920 F. Supp. 44 (S.D. New York, 1995)
Matthews v. Wozencraft
15 F.3d 432 (Fifth Circuit, 1994)
Doe v. Star Telegram, Inc.
864 S.W.2d 790 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1993)
Morita v. Omni Publications International, Ltd.
741 F. Supp. 1107 (S.D. New York, 1990)
Paramount Pictures v. Video Broadcasting Systems
724 F. Supp. 808 (D. Kansas, 1989)
Roy P. Benavidez v. Anheuser Busch, Inc.
873 F.2d 102 (Fifth Circuit, 1989)
Gary Moore v. The Big Picture Company
828 F.2d 270 (Fifth Circuit, 1987)
Larry Moran v. London Records, Ltd.
827 F.2d 180 (Seventh Circuit, 1987)
Faloona v. Hustler Magazine, Inc.
607 F. Supp. 1341 (N.D. Texas, 1985)
Wildlife Internationale, Inc. v. Clements
591 F. Supp. 1542 (S.D. Ohio, 1984)
Ed Braun v. Larry C. Flynt, Chic Magazine, Inc.
726 F.2d 245 (Fifth Circuit, 1984)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
503 F. Supp. 533, 207 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 1005, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13236, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-bank-of-commerce-v-shaklee-corp-txwd-1980.