25 F. 125 | U.S. Cir. Ct. | 1885
(orally.) The complainant is a large manufacturer of white lead at St. Louis. It stamps or stencils upon the upper
It is shown by analysis, and not denied, that while the complainant’s manufacture is unadulterated and free from impurities, the defendants’ contains on an average only 50 per cent, of lead. The complainant claims a trade-mark in its two brands, one without the red crescent, and the other with it; and this bill is filed to enjoin the defendants from infringing the first of these trade-marks.
I shall not stop to inquire whether the complainant’s claim to trademark is or is not well founded, as I think it is entitled to an injunction upon another ground. The defendants so brand the heads- of their kegs as to naturally mislead and induce persons purchasing for consumption to suppose they are purchasing the complainant’s lead, when they are getting an inferior article. The brand used by the defendants is so like the complainant’s as' to induce the public to mistake the one for the other. The defendants sell their goods to retail dealers, and it may be that such dealers are not deceived, but they sell to consumers who are or may be deceived. The complainant is entitled to relief if the brand used by the defendants sufficiently resembles the complainant’s brand to be mistaken for it, and the defendants adopted their brand for the purpose of selling their kegs as the kegs of the complainant, or for the purpose of enabling retail dealers to do so, and the complainant has been injured by this fraud, or is likely to be injured by it.
The complainant manufactures its genuine white lead at St. Louis, and its reputation is already established as a manufacturer and dealer of this character. The defendants manufacture their adulterated and greatly inferior lead at Chicago, and stamp upon their kegs a false
A temporary injunction will be granted restraining the defendants from branding upon their kegs the words “Southwestern” and “St. Louis.”