Sunbeam Corporation v. Sunbeam Furniture Corp.

134 F. Supp. 614
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedMarch 17, 1955
Docket51 C 219
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 134 F. Supp. 614 (Sunbeam Corporation v. Sunbeam Furniture Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sunbeam Corporation v. Sunbeam Furniture Corp., 134 F. Supp. 614 (N.D. Ill. 1955).

Opinion

KNOCH, District Judge.

This is an action brought under the Trade-Mark Laws of the United States by virtue of plaintiff’s Federal registrations of its trade-mark. Plaintiff seeks injunctive and other relief on the ground of infringement of trade-mark and unfair competition.

The defendants deny infringement.

The case came-on for hearing before this Court on the pleadings and the evidence, consisting of oral testimony and documentary proofs.

Witnesses were called by the respective parties and their testimony transcribed in the record.

The Court has had the benefit of argument by counsel upon briefs.

The Court has reviewed the record and briefs of counsel, has weighed carefully the arguments presented, and has considered the authorities advanced by respective counsel in support of their respective claims.

Upon a consideration of the whole case, the Court makes the following:

Findings of Fact

1. Plaintiff, Sunbeam Corporation, is an Illinois corporation, with its principal office and place of business in Chicago, Illinois.

2. Defendant, Sunbeam Furniture Corp., is an Illinois corporation doing business at, and with its principal offices at, 3300 South Indiana Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, and is a resident and an inhabitant of the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.

3. Defendant, Expert Lamp Company, is an Illinois corporation doing business at, and with its principal offices at, 3300 South Indiana Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, and is a resident and an inhabitant of the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.

4. Defendants, Arthur M. Luster and Frieda Luster, are doing business at 3300 South Indiana Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, as co-partners under the business styles of Sunbeam Products Company, Sunbeam Lamp Co., and Sunbeam Furniture Sales Co., and said defendants *616 are residents and inhabitants of the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.

5. The amount in controversy herein is in excess of $3,000 exclusive of interest and costs.

6. Plaintiff has registered its trademark “Sunbeam”, in form as shown in plaintiff’s exhibits B-l to B-15, in the United States Patent Office for a large variety of products; among such registrations are the following:

No. Reg. Date Description of Goods
145,335 August 2, 1921 Electric flatirons. (Renewed August 2,1941)
267,557 February 25, 1930 Electric percolators and electric lighters for pipes, cigars and cigarettes.
280,756 February 24, 1931 Electric food mixers, electric waffle irons, and electric clocks.
318,056 October 16, 1934 Electrically operated devices consisting of room and space heaters, desk fans, scissors, coffee makers, cigarette lighters, drink mixers, potato peelers, vegetable slieers and shredders, can openers, knife sharpeners, food choppers and meat grinders, ice cream freezer drive units, silver polishers and buffers, juice extractors and coffee grinders.
370,742 September 5, 1939 Electric dry shavers and parts thereof.
390,181 September 9, 1941 Electric flatirons, electric toaster grills, electric toaster and table stoves, electric heating pads, portage electric radiant heaters, electric percolators, electric lighters for pipes, cigars and cigarettes, electric coffee makers, electric food mixers, electric waffle irons, electrically operated room and space heaters, desk fans and scissors, electrically operated attachments for food mixers comprising drink mixers, potato peelers, vegetable sliders and shredders, can openers, knife sharpeners, food choppers and meat grinders, ice cream freezer drive units, silver polishers and buffers, juice extractors and coffee grinders, electrically operated attachments for food mixers comprising colanders, pea shellers, bean slicers and butter churns, electric cord sets and plugs.
418,993 January 15, 1946 Industrial furnaces for heat treating, hardening, carburizing, annealing and tempering metals.

Said registrations are valid and subsisting, uneancelled and unrevoked, and are the property of plaintiff.

7. Each of plaintiff’s said trade-mark registrations was registered or has been renewed or republished to bring it within the protection of the United States trade-mark Act of 1946 as amended, 15 U.S.C.A § 1051 et seq.

■ 8. Although said trade-mark registrations recite a number of specific products to which the particular trade-mark *617 has been applied, the manufacture and sale of some of such products has been terminated by plaintiff or has been in such quantities or relating to such goods as to be of little significance in this case.

9. Since 1912, plaintiff has been continuously engaged in the manufacture and sale of household electrical goods.

10. No products of plaintiff have used or use electricity as a source of power for illumination. All electrical products made by plaintiff have used electricity as a source of power either for heating or for driving a motor.

11. Plaintiff owns and operates a large manufacturing establishment in Chicago, Illinois, where said products are produced. Plaintiff’s business is national and international in scope and plaintiff owns and operates subsidiary manufacturing plants in Toronto, Canada and Sydney, Australia, which are also engaged in the manufacture of various household electrical goods. Plaintiff has dealers and distributors in all states of the United States and in many foreign countries, through which its household electrical goods are sold and distributed.

12. Plaintiff has never made nor has it any present intention to make decorative or household illuminating lamps.

13. In the year 1921, plaintiff adopted and used and now uses on its household electrical products, the trade-mark “Sunbeam,” in form as shown in plaintiff’s exhibits B-l to B-15. Since 1921, said use of the trade-mark “Sunbeam” has been continuous and without interruption throughout the United States and in many foreign countries.

14. The annual volume of business done by plaintiff under its trade-mark, “Sunbeam,” as described above, amounts to several millions of dollars.

15. Plaintiff spends, and has for many years spent, large sums of money in advertising its household electrical products sold under its trade-mark “Sunbeam,” as described above.

16. Plaintiff’s trade-mark “Sunbeam” means and has meant, for some years prior to defendant’s use, to the trade and public, when applied to household electrical goods, the products of the plaintiff.

17.

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134 F. Supp. 614, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sunbeam-corporation-v-sunbeam-furniture-corp-ilnd-1955.