Standard Oil Co. v. Standard Oil Co.

239 F. Supp. 97, 144 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 581, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7809
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Missouri
DecidedMarch 4, 1965
DocketNo. 11407
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 239 F. Supp. 97 (Standard Oil Co. v. Standard Oil Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Standard Oil Co. v. Standard Oil Co., 239 F. Supp. 97, 144 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 581, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7809 (E.D. Mo. 1965).

Opinion

MEREDITH, District Judge.

This matter having come on to be heard on December 4, 1964, on the supplemental bill of plaintiff Standard Oil Company, an Indiana corporation, on the order to show cause issued by this Court pursuant to the prayer of plaintiff, and on the return of Humble Oil and Refining Company (hereinafter called Humble) and Esso, Incorporated, to this Court’s order to show cause, and the Court having considered the evidence and being fully advised by briefs and oral arguments, makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law.

Findings of Fact

1. In 1937 this Court, upon suit of Standard Oil Company (Indiana), perpetually enjoined all defendants, including Esso, Incorporated, its agents, servants, representatives, attorneys, and all others acting for, with, through or under it from using the name Esso in fourteen midwest states, including Oklahoma, in connection with petroleum and its products or in the petroleum industry, and from committing any other act or acts calculated to cause confusion or to infringe, injure or damage the rights of plaintiff in and to its trademarks, names and good will. This decree was affirmed by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in 1938 (98 F.2d 1).

2. On July 9, 1963, Humble and Esso, Incorporated, the respondents in this case, filed an action in this Court, cause No. 63 C 251, to modify and amend the [98]*98original 1937 decree. Esso, Incorporated, is presently a wholly-owned subsidiary of Humble and Humble is the principal United States operating affiliate of Standard Oil Company (New Jersey). Among grounds alleged in cause No. 63 C 251 as to the reason for the modification of the original 1937 decree, the respondents alleged that the Esso trademark has come to be distinctive and unique as identifying the products of Humble; that there is no confusion between the symbol and mark “Esso” and “S O”; that in light of national advertising practices and the use of credit cards, the public is able to distinguish readily the differences between the Standard Oil products marketed in the midwest by the American Oil Company and the products of Humble marketed nationally under the term “Esso”.

3. “Esso” is a trademark registered in the United States Patent Office; Humble is the record owner of this trademark.

4. In April 1964 one Wendell H. Sand-' lin, or a company of which he is the principal owner, Sandlin Oil Service, Inc., an Oklahoma corporation, or both, began using the word “Esso” on the signs and gasoline pumps at stations owned and operated by Sandlin and his company in the State of Oklahoma.

5. On April 24, 1964, Humble filed an action against Sandlin Oil Service, Inc., Sandlin and two other individuals in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, at Tulsa, Oklahoma, Civil Action No. 5946, alleging among other things that by using “Esso” the Sandlin defendants were palming off their products as those of Humble and were deceiving and confusing the public; Humble prayed for an injunction to prevent those defendants from using the name “Esso”,

6. On April 28,1964, the case at Tulsa against the Sandlin defendants was dismissed without prejudice on motion of Humble, which stated that since the filing of the complaint the Sandlin defendants had stopped using the name “Esso” and had removed it from their pumps, signs and places of business. The evidence before this Court shows that the Sandlin defendants had stopped using the name “Esso” at their pumps, signs and places of business and it has not been used since.

7. On April 23, 1964, under the laws of Oklahoma, Sandlin formed a corporation under the name of Esso Oil Company of Oklahoma, Incorporated.

8. On May 1, 1964, Humble brought a second case against Wendell Sandlin, Sandlin Oil Service, Inc., and Esso Oil Company of Oklahoma in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Civil No. 64-204. This suit prayed for an injunction to prevent the defendants from using the name “Esso”.

9. In the case at Oklahoma City against Sandlin and the Esso Oil Company of Oklahoma, Inc., a motion for temporary injunction was filed by Humble. After a hearing on July 2, 1964, a decree of temporary injunction, findings of fact and conclusions of law, which had been prepared by Humble’s attorneys, were entered by the Court. The Esso Oil Company of Oklahoma has filed an answer and a counterclaim asserting the right of Esso Oil Company of Oklahoma, Inc., to use the “Esso” name, alleging among other defenses that Humble has no right to the use of the name “Esso” in Oklahoma, by virtue of the 1937 decree of this Court, and Humble has filed its reply. The case is now at issue and ready for trial.

10. A citation for misbranding was issued June 4,1964, by the State of Oklahoma against Sandlin and after a hearing on September 10, 1964, the matter has been held in suspension by the administrative body before whom it is pending.

11. The fact of incorporation of Esso Oil Company of Oklahoma, Inc., was discovered by Humble’s attorneys on April 30, 1964, and the attorneys of Standard Oil Company (Indiana) on May 4, 1964, both after dismissal of the Tulsa suit.

[99]*9912. Standard Oil Company (Indiana) has taken no action against the Sandlin interests nor has it petitioned the Court in Oklahoma City to intervene in that suit in any way, but instead has filed its supplemental bill in this Court to restrain further action by Humble against Esso Oil Company of Oklahoma, Inc.

13. Mr. Thomas R. Schwarz of St. Louis, Missouri, and Mr. Francis X. Clair of New York City, both of whom are among Humble’s attorneys of record in the pending proceedings in this Court, No. 63 C 251, were included among Humble’s counsel who drafted or approved the complaints in the case at Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the one at Oklahoma City against the Sandlin defendants, the motion for a preliminary injunction, and the findings, conclusions and decree for preliminary injunction in the Oklahoma City case; they did not sign the complaints nor were they listed as being of counsel, but they did participate in those proceedings.

14. Among the findings of facts and conclusions of law on motion for a preliminary injunction entered in the suit at Oklahoma City, Civil No. 64-204, in which Humble is the plaintiff, are the following:

Findings of Fact No. 20:

“20. Plaintiff’s trademark Esso has acquired a secondary significance in Oklahoma.”

Conclusions of Law Nos. 4 and 7:

“4. Plaintiff has acquired a valuable property right in the trademark or trade name Esso as it is related to the distribution and sale of petroleum products, including gasoline and lubricating oil, and for present purposes, in the State of Oklahoma in particular.”
“7. Traditional notions of limited market area pervading earlier cases dealing with product trademarks are not persuasive in this day of modern communication and travel, and this is even more important in the instant case where the mark is used in connection with sales to the traveling public and there is involved a market which is nationwide, and indeed, worldwide.”

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102 F.R.D. 152 (N.D. Illinois, 1984)
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259 F. Supp. 559 (E.D. Missouri, 1966)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
239 F. Supp. 97, 144 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 581, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7809, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/standard-oil-co-v-standard-oil-co-moed-1965.