Phoenix Manufacturing Co. v. Plymouth Mfg. Co.

286 F. Supp. 324, 160 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 56, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12265
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedJune 28, 1968
DocketCiv. A. 65-34-G
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 286 F. Supp. 324 (Phoenix Manufacturing Co. v. Plymouth 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
Phoenix Manufacturing Co. v. Plymouth Mfg. Co., 286 F. Supp. 324, 160 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 56, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12265 (D. Mass. 1968).

Opinion

OPINION

GARRITY, District Judge.

Plaintiff has brought an action for trademark infringement and unfair com *326 petition. The amount in controversy exceeds the sum of $10,000. Jurisdiction is based upon 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1332 and 1338 and upon 15 U.S.C. § 1121. Defendant has counterclaimed that plaintiff’s trademark registration is invalid and that defendant is entitled to registration of the trademark. Following, a trial on the merits without a jury, the court makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law:

Findings of Fact

1. Plaintiff is a family-owned New Jersey corporation, having its principal place of business in Roselle, New Jersey. It has been engaged in the business of manufacturing and selling men’s and boys’ outerwear since 1932.

2. Defendant is a Massachusetts corporation, having its principal place of business in Boston, Massachusetts. It has been engaged in the business of manufacturing and selling raincoats since 1909 and has sold jackets and other items of outerwear for at least ten years.

3. Both plaintiff and defendant sell their products throughout the United States.

4. On February 29, 1940, plaintiff applied for registration of a trademark. On July 23, 1940 registration of the trademark was granted under registration number 379,754. The trademark consisted of the word SENTINEL in Old English typeface; next to the word, a full-length full-face picture of a sentinel wearing a conical helmet and carrying a staff in his right hand and a shield in his left hand; and the words “Sportswear of Merit” (disclaimed apart from the mark) in script. The registration issued to “Phoenix Mfg. Co., a corporation * * * located at Elizabeth, New Jersey” for “LEATHER AND CLOTH SPORT COATS AND SPORT JACKETS FOR MEN AND WOMEN.”

5. Plaintiff has used the word SENTINEL since 1940 both in the form of the mark registered in that year and alone or in other combinations, usually in Old English typeface.

6. The 1940 registration expired in July of 1960, after twenty years, but plaintiff was not aware of expiration until sometime in 1961, when this was called to the attention of an officer of plaintiff who then instructed plaintiff’s attorney to renew the registration. Sometime prior to October 30, 1961, plaintiff’s attorney conducted a search for the SENTINEL trademark and on December 7, 1961 applied for a new registration of the 'mark. The application was published in the official Gazette of the Patent Office on November 27, 1962 and the new registration, which is currently in effect, issued on February 12, 1963, bearing registration number 745,-159.

7. Plaintiff has sold outerwear under the name SENTINEL continuously since 1940, applying that name to both jackets and various types of short coats. Since 1940 at least 50 per cent of the products sold by plaintiff each year have carried the SENTINEL name, and about 75 per cent of plaintiff’s current sales are of items bearing that name. In addition, in 1960 or 1961 plaintiff sold a few hundred raincoats with liners, or “all-weather coats”, under the SENTINEL name but otherwise has not sold, or is currently selling, this particular type of coat.

8. Approximately 70 per cent of plaintiff’s sales consists of men’s items and 30 per cent consists of boys’ items. There is no evidence as to what percentage of either the men’s or boys’ items are labelled SENTINEL.

9. Plaintiff has used the SENTINEL name on labels sewn into its products, on catalogs and price lists distributed to the trade each year, and to a very limited extent in national trade and consumer advertising. For the years 1940 to 1961 plaintiff’s advertising budget for SENTINEL items averaged about $1,000 per year. In 1967, plaintiff’s advertising budget for SENTINEL items was approximately $3,000. Plaintiff’s annual sales have increased from approximately $1,300,000 in 1964 to approximately $2,000,000 in 1967.

*327 10. In January of 1961 defendant was considering several names, including the name Sentinel, for use on a new line of high-quality dacron and cotton all-weather coats. Defendant decided upon the name SENTRY after an investigation disclosed that no one else had registered that name as a trademark.

11. Defendant then began to plan an extensive advertising campaign around the theme of a British guardsman and a sentry box. Among other things, SENTRY labels were prepared consisting of a full-length full-face picture of a British guardsman wearing a bearskin hat and with his arms at his side; behind and to the side of the guardsman, a sentry box; the word SENTRY in block letters; and the words “Plymouth of Boston”, “wash & wear”, and a statement of the composition of the garment to which the label was to be attached. Also, in January 1961 a layout for consumer advertising was drawn up consisting in part of a full-face picture of a British guardsman depicted from the waist up; the guardsman was pictured wearing a bearskin hat, holding a staff in his right hand, and with a shield partly obscuring the left side of his body; on the shield were printed the words “Plymouth” and SENTRY, the latter in Old English typeface.

12. In March of 1961, Burberry’s Ltd., a major British manufacturer of high-quality raincoats informed defendant that it had used the SENTRY name and theme for some of its coats and objected to defendant’s use of the name.

13. By March of 1961 defendant had invested considerable effort and a large amount of money in preparing a “sentry” advertising campaign. A series of advertisements had been prepared, and promotion of the line had commenced. Because of Burberry’s objections, defendant decided to abandon the name SENTRY and to adopt another name with similar connotations in order to make use of the artwork which had been completed and the promotional work which had begun. At this point defendant was under considerable time pressure to select another name and go forward with its advertising campaign without delay.

14. The defendant’s search of the SENTINEL name was made after its decision not to use SENTRY. This search turned up plaintiff’s expired 1940 registration and sometime subsequent to the search, in 1961, defendant obtained a copy of the expired registration.

15. Contrary to testimony offered by defendant, the court finds that through investigation defendant became aware of plaintiff’s continued use of the SENTINEL mark but nevertheless decided to use the same mark itself because of its belief that plaintiff was not using the mark on raincoats and because of the time pressure upon it to make use of the artwork which had been prepared with respect to the SENTRY mark.

16. By the fall of 1961 national consumer magazines began to carry advertisements of defendant which were identical to the SENTRY paste-up with the exception that the word SENTINEL was substituted for the word SENTRY.

17.

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Bluebook (online)
286 F. Supp. 324, 160 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 56, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12265, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/phoenix-manufacturing-co-v-plymouth-mfg-co-mad-1968.