Sunbeam Corp. v. Spear

120 F. Supp. 538, 100 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 379, 1954 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3592
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 17, 1954
DocketNo. 9807
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 120 F. Supp. 538 (Sunbeam Corp. v. Spear) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sunbeam Corp. v. Spear, 120 F. Supp. 538, 100 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 379, 1954 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3592 (E.D. Pa. 1954).

Opinion

GANEY, District Judge.

The action here involved was brought to restrain the defendant from using the registered trade-mark “Sunbeam”. Defendant does not contest plaintiff’s title to its trade-marks containing that name, nor the validity of those marks, insofar as they are applied to goods of the character made by plaintiff. He claims that the trade-mark “Sunbeam” is a weak mark, and for that reason plaintiff may not prevent him from using the mark in connection with his business or on goods which are not of the kind manufactured, or upon which the mark is actually used by it. In addition he asserts as a defense to the action that no confusion existed between his and plaintiff’s goods, and that such goods are non-competing. To resolve these issues, the court, from the evidence presented to it, makes the following special

Findings of Facts.

I Plaintiff

1. Plaintiff, Sunbeam Corporation, is an Illinois corporation. Since 1912 it has continuously engaged in the manufacture and sale of various electrical products. It presently owns and operates a large manufacturing establishment in Chicago; its business is national in scope.

2. Plaintiff has never manufactured lighting fixtures. At one time it made therapeutic lamps, but it has since 1932 ceased making those items and abandoned its trade-mark in connection with them.

3. In 1921, plaintiff, then named the Chicago Flexible Shaft Company, registered the trade-mark “Sunbeam”, written in a distinctive script, for electric flatirons. From time to time additional registrations of the trade-mark “Sunbeam” were obtained by it on various household appliances and other tools or utensils, most of which were electrically operated.

4. As the Chicago Flexible Shaft Company developed its “Sunbeam” electrical appliances, it applied in its promotional program the use of other key words used in connection with some of its products. These were “master”, such as in Mixmaster, Shavemaster, Ironmaster and Coffeemaster, and “Automatic”, which was applied generally.

5. Plaintiff sells its Sunbeam household products through some 1200 wholesalers and more than 100,000 retailers throughout the United States under resale price maintenance contracts. The trade-mark is prominently displayed on each item.

6. The annual volume of business done by plaintiff under the trade-mark “Sunbeam” amounts to many millions of dollars. Since 1921 it has sold over four hundred million dollars worth of products bearing that trade-mark.

7-. As the trade-mark became increasingly popular, plaintiff has been very aggressive in its efforts to pre[540]*540empt the mark and prevent other manufacturers in the electrical field from using it on their products. It has bought trade-marks containing the name Sunbeam from others and then permitted the registrations of such marks to expire.

8. At present it annually spends millions of dollars in advertising its products sold under the trade-mark “Sunbeam” through newspapers and prominent magazines of general circulation. Since 1921 it has spent in excess of sixteen million dollars in such advertising. Plaintiff’s typical advertising today stresses the words, “Sunbeam”, automatic and master. However, it has emphasized the trade-mark “Sunbeam” over the others in all its advertising, sales promotions and displays. In addition, many millions of dollars have been spent by retailers on a local scale in advertising and displaying plaintiff’s products bearing the trade-mark “Sunbeam”.

9. Plaintiff has been known by the trade and public by the various names Sunbeam, Sunbeam Electric, Sunbeam Company, Sunbeam Manufacturing Company for many years prior to 1946, the year in which it changed its corporate name to Sunbeam Corporation.

10. Plaintiff’s products bearing the trade-mark “Sunbeam” are of high quality, excellent style, dependable and of exceptional utility; they are entitled to full public confidence.

11. Plaintiff’s products are sold to the general public primarily on the basis of its trade-mark and the reputation for those characteristics mentioned in paragraph 10 above.

II The Trade-mark

1. “Sunbeam”, and other similar trade-marks having “Sun” as a prefix, have been registered as trade-marks in the United States Patent Office over 2,000 times -since 1890.

2. “Sunbeam” has been registered as a trade-mark 128 times upon a variety of goods including products in lighting and other electrical fields. Not counting plaintiff, “Sunbeam” has been registered by others for lighting and electrical goods twélve times since 1891.

3. Plaintiff has no trade-mark registration of “Sunbeam” in connection with lighting fixtures, either flourescent or incandescent.

4. The word “Sunbeam” is used commonly in connection with business-names throughout the United States in the electrical manufacturing and selling field, and many other diversified fields. It has been used in this manner prior to plaintiff’s adoption of the word in connection with its business in 1921.

5. The word “Sunbeam” is highly suggestive ;1 it brings to mind such physical phenomena as bright light,, warmth and speedy but silent motion-. It is therefore particularly well adapted to electric lighting fixtures, and its selection for such use is a natural and appropriate one. As a trade-mark it is not fanciful, unique or distinctive.

6. By plaintiff’s persistent efforts and expenditures of large sums of money, the-trade-mark “Sunbeam”, in connection-with household electrical products, has acquired prior to 1945 a distinctiveness or secondary meaning with the trade and public in Pennsylvania and other states as indicating and identifying plaintiff’s products or the -source where such products originate.

7. Plaintiff has not given defendant its consent to use the trade-mark “Sunbeam”. He has never used the words, “master” or “automatic” in connection with any of his products.

Ill Defendant

1. Defendant, Bernard J. Spear, is a citizen of Pennsylvania. Since October 22, 1945, he has conducted his business under the fictitious names: Sunbeam Electric Co., Sunbeam El. Mfg. Co», Sunbeam Manufacturing Company. The latter name is duly registered according to the laws of Pennsylvania.

[541]*5412. He manufactures and sells fluorescent and incandescent lighting fixtures. He does not make or sell household or other electrical products. At one time he was engaged, to a limited extent, in the manufacture of portable desk and table lamps, but this side line was discontinued by him in 1947, two years prior to the filing of the complaint in the action here involved.

3. His fixtures are of the permanent variety. They are not expensive products and are easy to install once the building in which they are to be placed has been wired for electric lighting fixtures.

4. He sells his products primarily to approximately 800 establishments throughout the country classified as wholesalers. These wholesalers deal principally in lighting fixtures. No control is placed upon such outlets by defendant in their distribution of his products.

5. Defendant’s wholesale customers prefer that there be no reference to the manufacturer on the fixtures; they would rather sell lighting fixtures as their own make rather than as branded articles.

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120 F. Supp. 538, 100 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 379, 1954 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3592, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sunbeam-corp-v-spear-paed-1954.