White Tower System, Inc. v. White Castle System of Eating Houses Corp.

90 F.2d 67, 33 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 573, 1937 U.S. App. LEXIS 3760
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedMay 4, 1937
Docket7133
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 90 F.2d 67 (White Tower System, Inc. v. White Castle System of Eating Houses Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
White Tower System, Inc. v. White Castle System of Eating Houses Corp., 90 F.2d 67, 33 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 573, 1937 U.S. App. LEXIS 3760 (6th Cir. 1937).

Opinion

ALLEN, Circuit Judge.

This appeal deals with the question whether one who has substantially appropriated a trade name and advertising slogan and has knowingly imitated a building of peculiar style, with knowledge of their previous use in the same business by anothér, can enjoin the originator from using its own style of building, trade name and slogan in territory in which the junior user first operated, and whether the originator in turn can enjoin' the junior user from such use.

Appellant filed its bill of complaint, seeking relief from alleged unfair competition. Appellee filed a cross-bill, seeking similar relief. The cause was referred to a special master, who filed a report recommending that a decree be entered in favor of appellee. The District Court confirmed the master’s report, made findings of fact and conclusions of law, and permanently enjoined appellant as prayed in the cross-petition.

Both parties operate stands for the sale of hamburger sandwiches and other food products in Detroit, Michigan, each using a white structure designed like a miniature castle. As each party pleads that the names, types of buildings and advertising slogans are so similar as to mislead and deceive the public, confusion is .conceded. Appellant entered Detroit in 1928 and appellee in 1929.

Appellee’s predecessors began business in Wichita, Kansas, in 1921. The business expanded from Wichita through Omaha, Kansas City, St. Louis, Louisville, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Minneapolis and St. Paul, later entering Detroit, Chicago, Columbus, Newark and New York. It now includes 120 stands in the major cities of eleven states. Since commencement of its business appellee has called its stands “White Castle,” and its slogan has been “Buy ’Em By the Sack.”

In 1926 appellant’s predecessors and organizers began business in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, using a building similar in design to appellee’s, under the name “White Tower,” and the slogan “Take Home a Bagful.” Appellant’s organizers had been attracted to the possibilities.of such a business by appellee’s success in Minneapolis. They deliberately used one of appellee’s stands as a model, obtained measurements and photographs thereof, and later secured plans and specifications of appellee’s building and gave them to their architect. Appellant employed one of appellee’s countermen at four times the salary received from appellee, to install the equipment. It was a part of the consideration for his employment that he should give information about the White Castle methods. He came into appellant’s service equipped with a White Castle hamburger paddle, with specimens of the peculiar metal used in the White Castle griddle, and with appellee’s accounting forms. Thus appellant secured access to, and in the main adopted, appellee’s business methods.

The District Court found that appellee’s food products, trade name, slogan, and style of building were known in Detroit and to the purchasing public of that city before appellant located there, and that Detroit was at that time within the normal scope of expansion of appellee’s business, and that appellee then had substantial good will in that city. These findings were based upon testimony that appellee advertised in various newspapers, trade journals and over the radio, and also upon the testimony of residents of Detroit who had known of the White Castle lunchrooms prior to the opening of the White Tower stands.

Appellant vigorously urges that there was no evidence to support these findings. We cannot agree with this contention. Appellee’s expansion into the cities east and north of Wichita, as found by the court, was made pursuant to a plan formed in 1921 by which it proposed to locate in cities where its name, slogan and style of architecture were already known, either because of their proximity or because there was flow of travel between them and cities in which it was already located. This plan was pursued with such success that when in 1926 appellant opened its stand in Milwaukee, it did so because it had observed the popularity of appellee’s business and desired to profit by its good will. We cannot ignore the fact that appellee established its stands along arterial highways, with the result that the traveling public carried its reputation to far *69 distant points, and by personal recommendation 'its 'good ?name (became an asset in Detroit. (Good -will may 'be defined as the favorable consideration shown by the purchasing ipublic to goods known to emanate from ¡a particular source. While its existence may be shown by proof of actual successful operation, it may also be shown by proof of the reputation which arises from such operation. It may exist in territory where -no business is done by the possessor of the good will. Cf. Buckspan v. Hudson’s Bay Co., 22 F.(2d) 721 (C.C.A.5). The right of the owner of good will to be protected is not limited to the prevention of actual market competition. Wisconsin Electric Co. v. Dumore Co., 35 F.(2d) 555 (C.C.A.6). In that case this court held that the doctrine of protection against unfair competition “extends to all cases in which one party fraudulently seeks to sell his goods as those of another.”

While the trade names of both parties were registered as trade marks, the pleadings were framed and the trial was conducted on the theory of unfair competition, and it was upon this ground that the relief was granted. Unfair competition is “a convenient name for the doctrine that no one should be allowed to sell his goods as those of another.” Vogue Co. v. Thompson-Hudson Co., 300 F. 509, 512 (C.C.A.6). Appellant having deliberately imitated the peculiar characteristics of appellee’s business, and adopted its system, seeks to exclude appellee from using its own style of building, name and slogan in Detroit upon the ground that appellant first did business in that city.

The general rule is that priority of adoption of a trade name or distinctive advertising feature gives exclusive right to their use. Delaware & H. Canal Co. v. Clark, 13 Wall. 311, 322, 20 L.Ed. 581; Hanover Star Milling Co. v. Metcalf, 240 U.S. 403, 415, 36 S.Ct. 357, 60 L.Ed. 713; United Drug Co. v. Theodore Rectanus Co., 248 U.S. 90, 100, 39 S.Ct. 48, 63 L.Ed. 141. Appellee has the exclusive right to the name “White Castle,” to its style of building and its slogan within its normal territory. If Detroit lies within that territory, appellant is guilty of unfair competition, .for it palms off its food products as those of appellee. Cf. Western Oil Refining Co. v. Jones, 27 F.(2d) 205 (C.C.A.6). Appellant claims that it is entitled to an injunction under the established exception £o jthis .rule, .which is that where the junior user has 'innocently built up a business in a market remote from that of the originator, he may not be restrained though his monopoly is restricted to the territory of its use. Hanover Star Milling Co. v. Metcalf, supra; United Drug Co. v. Theodore Rectanus Co., supra. However, these decisions, which adopt the exception, are to be distinguished, for in both the junior user had no knowledge of the originator’s trade mark and no intention to copy it. The court in United Drug Co. v. Theodore Rectanus Co., 248 U.S. 90, at page 101, 39 S.Ct. 48, 52, 63 L.Ed. 141, quotes with approval from the Hanover Milling Co.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Demetriades v. Kaufmann
680 F. Supp. 658 (S.D. New York, 1988)
Colgate-Palmolive Co. v. Mistolín de Puerto Rico, Inc.
117 P.R. Dec. 313 (Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, 1986)
Emra Corp. v. Superclips Ltd.
559 F. Supp. 705 (E.D. Michigan, 1983)
Johanna Farms, Inc. v. Citrus Bowl, Inc.
468 F. Supp. 866 (E.D. New York, 1978)
Fotomat Corp. v. Photo Drive-Thru, Inc.
425 F. Supp. 693 (D. New Jersey, 1977)
Beef & Brew, Inc. v. Beef & Brew, Inc.
389 F. Supp. 179 (D. Oregon, 1974)
Steak & Brew, Inc. v. Beef & Brew Restaurant, Inc.
370 F. Supp. 1030 (S.D. Illinois, 1974)
Covington Inn Corp. v. White Horse Tavern, Inc.
445 S.W.2d 135 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976), 1969)
Harvey v. Harvey House, Inc.
278 F. Supp. 172 (E.D. Pennsylvania, 1968)
Reed v. Robilio
273 F. Supp. 954 (W.D. Tennessee, 1967)
Travelodge Corporation v. Siragusa
228 F. Supp. 238 (N.D. Alabama, 1964)
Shoppers Fair of Arkansas, Inc. v. Sanders Company
207 F. Supp. 718 (W.D. Arkansas, 1962)
Nielsen v. American Oil Company
203 F. Supp. 473 (D. Utah, 1962)
Lincoln Restaurant Corp. v. Wolfies Rest., Inc.
185 F. Supp. 454 (E.D. New York, 1960)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
90 F.2d 67, 33 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 573, 1937 U.S. App. LEXIS 3760, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/white-tower-system-inc-v-white-castle-system-of-eating-houses-corp-ca6-1937.