41 F. 34 | U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Northern New York | 1889
The facts in this case, as appears by the agreed statement of the parties, are as follows: Hiram Holt, of Farmington, in the state of Maine, began the manufacture of hay-knives in the early part of the year 1871, under certain letters patent of the United States granted to George F. Weymouth, of Dresden, Me., dated March 7, 1871, and numbered 112,400; the said Hiram Holt being the owner of said letters patent. Sometime in the month of May, 1872, after he had become the owner of said patent, and began said business, Hiram Holt devised, -as a name to be applied to hay-knives manufactured by him under the said letters patent, the word “lightning,” and he began to use it in his said business on the 21st day of May, 1872. In May, 1879, he associated himself with Julia W. Holt, as a co-partner, and thereafter transacted the same business under the style of “Hiram Holt & Co.,” until the 9th day
Upon these facts, it should be held that the complainants have a valid trade-mark in the word “Lightning,” as applied to hay-knives similar to those to which they have applied it; that the trade-mark is valid, both at-common law and by the act of congress of March 3, 1881; that the word is.not merely descriptive of the quality or characteristics of the article to which it has been applied; and that they should have a decree for an injunction to restrain the defendants from violating .their trademark in the word, and for an accounting.
It is also held that the complainants have no exclusive right to use the words “Weymouth’s Patent” as a trade-mark, because they are the name which was given to such hay-knives when they were first made and sold, and the name by which they have become recognized and dealt in by the public; and that- after the patent expired all persons had the right to deal in the article by that name, and also to print the name upon the article. These conclusions are but the application of familiar law to the facts of the case, and it would be quite superfluous to indulge in any extended discussion of the authorities. If the case of Manufacturing Co. v. Manufacturing Co., 32 Fed. Rep. 99, contains any opinion opposed to the view that the defendants have the right to print the words “Weymouth’s Patent” upon hay-knives sold by them similar to the patented article, it is not acceded to, and is antagonistic to the cases of Fairbanks v. Jacobus, 14 Blatchf. 337, and Battery Co. v. Electric Co., 23 Fed. Rep. 276. The complainants have done nothing to prejudice their right to protection by printing on their hay-knives, after the patent expired, the words “Weymouth’s Patent, granted March 7, 1871, reissued April 20, 1886,” there being no evidence that the patent was not reissued as stated, as this representation could not mislead the public. •