National Lock Washer Co. v. Hobbs Mfg. Co.

210 F. 516, 1914 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1181
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedJanuary 2, 1914
DocketNo. 103 (C. C. 556)
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 210 F. 516 (National Lock Washer Co. v. Hobbs Mfg. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
National Lock Washer Co. v. Hobbs Mfg. Co., 210 F. 516, 1914 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1181 (D. Mass. 1914).

Opinion

BINGHAM, Circuit Judge.

This is a bill in equity brought by the complainant to restrain the defendant from using the word “National” in any way in connection with the manufacture and sale of lock washers, even though the use made of the word is in no way calculated to deceive the public as to the origin of the article dealt in by the defendant. In other words, it is conceded that there is no evidence in the case from which it can be found that the use made by the defendant of the word “National” indicates that the complainant was the manufacturer of the article so as to mislead or deceive the public as to its origin. The question of unfair competition is therefore eliminated from the case.

[ 1 ] It appears that on April 20, 1886, one Harvey procured a patent from the United States Patent Office on a nut lock; that the complainant purchased it and during the life of the patent manufactured and sold the patented article, under the name of “the National Lock Washer,” in interstate and foreign commerce; that during the life of the patent the complainant marked the boxes, kegs, and containers in which it sold the lock washers with the words “the National Lock Washer Company, Newark, New Jersey,” and with the date of the [517]*517patent, and inclosed in the packages a circular on which was printed the words “thé National Lock Washer,” with a cut showing the lock washer as applied to a bolt, and the word “Patented” beneath it.

The patent expired April 20, 1903. After the expiration of the patent, the complainant made an application to the United States Patent Office, in which it stated that it had adopted the word “National” as a trade-mark, and that the class of goods to which the mark had been appropriated and used was lockwashers and nut locks. The application was made under the 10-year clause of section 5 of the TradeMark Act of February 20, 1905, and contained a statement that the mark had been continuously used in the business of the complainant since the year 1886, and actually and exclusively used by it or its predecessors in title for 10 years next preceding the passage of the act of 1905.

On May 8, 1906, letters of registration were issued to the complainant. After registration was allowed, the complainant changed its stencils, and marked all packages with the name of the company and with the words “the National Lock Washers, Reg. U. S. Pat. Office,” and inclosed in all the packages' a circular having on it the words “the National Lock Washers,” with a cut of the article, and under it the words “Reg. U. S. Pat. Office.”

The defendant manufactures and sells lock washers. In shipping its goods the boxes are- stenciled “American Wire Washers,” with the words “National Pattern,” “Plain Pattern,” and “Positive Pattern,” to indicate the kind of washer in each box, and the words “From Hobbs Manufacturing Company.”

The defendant contends that this casé is governed by the decision in Singer Manufacturing Co. v. June Manufacturing Co., 163 U. S. 169, 16 Sup. Ct. 1002, 41 L. Ed. 118; that under the rule of that case, upon the expiration of the Harvey patent in 1903, the word “National,” as applied to lock washers constructed under that patent, became public property, and that it had the right thereafter to make lock washers covered by the patent and to sell them under the designation of the National Pattern, provided it clearly indicated, as it did, that the article it dealt in was of its own manufacture; that neither the pat-entee nor his successor in title, the complainant, could acquire a monopoly in the word “National” on the theory that it had become a trademark denoting origin; that, whether it denoted origin or, by reason of its use during the existence of the patent, had become descriptive of the kind of washer manufactured thereunder, neither the patentee nor his successor could acquire a monopoly in the word by having it registered under the act of 1905 as a technical trade-mark, or as a descriptive word under the 10-year clause; and that its use under the patent, being a monopoly, cannot be availed of as proof for the purpose of extending the monopoly for an additional 20 years by registration under the 10-year clause of thé act of February 20, 1905.

This contention meets my approval. The underlying principle in the Singer-June Case is that it is against the policy of the law to extend the monopoly of the patentee or his successor in title in the pat[518]*518ented article after the expiration of the patent through a name, which during the existence of the patent has become descriptive of the article.

Then again, in construing the Trade-Mark Act of 1905, it is a reasonable inference that Congress did not intend that the provisions of that act should operate to continue the .monopoly through registration under it, or that the use of a word in connection with a patented arti-ele and during the life of the patent should be availed of to make up the 10 years of actual and exclusive use necessary to authorize registration.

[2] If, however, the use of a word descriptive of a patented article and used by the patentee or his successor in title during the life of the patent may be availed of by him to make up the 10 years of actual and exclusive use necessary to authorize registration of such a word under section 5 of the act, the most that can be claimed for registration thereunder is that .it confers upon the descriptive word the attributes of a technical trade-mark. Coca-Cola Co. v. Nashville Syrup Co. (D. C.) 200 Fed. 153, 154; American Lead Pencil Co. v. Gottlieb (C. C.) 181 Fed. 178; Thaddeus Davids Co. v. Davids (C. C.) 190 Fed. 285. But in the Singer-June Case a technical trade-mark which, during the life of the patent, had been so used in connection with the patented article as to become descriptive of it was held, to the extent that it had become descriptive, to be dedicated to the public together with the right to manufacture and sell the patented article, and that the owner’s right under the trade-mark was limited to restraining others from so using it as to mislead the public. And so here the word “National,” to the extent that it denotes origin or, by reason of its use in connection with lock washers, has come to denote origin, and by registration has become a statutory trade-mark possessing the attributes of a technical one, would be protected in the same way, and only to the extent of restraining the defendant from so using it as to give the public to' understand that the article it deals in was that of the complainant.

In Yale & Towne Manufacturing Co. v. Worcester Manufacturing Co., 195 Fed. 528, 115 C. C. A. 491, the original record in the case discloses that, after the expiration of the “Blount” patents for door checks, the Yale & Towne Company, the owners of the patent, procured a registration of the word “Blount” under the 10-year clause of the act of 1905. But it would seem that neither counsel nor court regarded the registration as adding anything to the complainant’s rights.

The complainant relies upon the case of Hughes v. Smith (D. C.) 205 Fed. 302, to support its contention. But the facts in the Hughes Case are not the same as those in this case, and consequently the question decided is not the same as the one here presented.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
210 F. 516, 1914 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1181, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-lock-washer-co-v-hobbs-mfg-co-mad-1914.