Vélez Posada v. Márquez
Vélez Posada v. Márquez
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The present appeal has been taken from an order of the lower court refusing to issue a preliminary "injunction re
The evidence shows that the plaintiff, Germán "Velez Po-sada, has been operating as owner, since 1942, a taxicab business under the trade name of “De Diego Taxi Cabs,” in which he uses twenty motor vehicles of the Chevrolet, Pontiac, and Buiek makes, 1940-41 models, for the transportation of passengers for hire within the city of San Juan and its environs and between that city and Río Piedras, and having his principal office at No. 1, De Diego Avenue, Santurce.
The top of those vehicles is painted in canary yellow and the body, including hood, rear {baúl), and fenders, in black, with a circular emblem or sign, eighteen inches in diameter, which appears on the front door and rear {baúl) of the body , and which contains the letter “V” painted in red on a yellow background, the figure of a Pegasus, painted in black inside the vertex of said letter and the legends “De Diego Taxi Cabs” and “Telephones 233-S, 555-S.J., and 12-R.P.” appearing respectively above and below the “V”. Some of the vehicles have the words “De Diego Taxi Cabs” painted in black letters on the windshield and on the rear portion of the body. The chauffeurs employed by the petitioner wear a kaki uniform and a black cap with a vizor of that same color. The plaintiff alleges that he has used the radio, the newspaper, and the baseball and carnival programs in order' to advertise his business having invested the sum of $4,500 in such advertising during the year 1944; that in the radio advertisements whose text is prepared by the petitioner, the yellow and black colors of said automobiles are emphasized; and that the petitioner has on, two or three occasions demanded from the defendant that he stop using the yellow and black colors on his automobile and the latter has refused to comply with those demands.
In his petition for injunction the plaintiff alleged that the acts of the defendant constitute unfair competition carried out through deceiving the public, to the prejudice of the passenger transportation business operated by the plaintiff; that if the writ of injunction sought in order to prevent the defendant from continuing to commit the acts described were refused, the plaintiff would suffer irreparable injury; and,
The appellant maintains that the lower court erred in weighing the evidence and in denying the preliminary injunction prayed for.
The lower court made an inspection of the vehicles involved in order to determine any existing similarity or difference and reached the conclusion that defendant’s automobile, although painted in yellow and black as were the vehicles of the plaintiff, could not be confused with any of the latter vehicles by a customer of ordinary intelligence who should exercise or take the customary precautions nor by the public in general, because, apart from the inscriptions or signs and markings used which are distinct, there is notable difference between the vehicles in question, which consists in the shield emblem containing the “V” (for Victory) and the figure of a winged-horse or Pegasus which appears only on the vehicles of the plaintiff, and that the only feature which the competing vehicles have in common is that they are painted in the same colors and almost in the same way.
It is true that there was no proof that the defendant advertised his automobile as belonging to or forming part of the fleet of vehicles operated by the plaintiff; but there was some showing that the defendant made use of wrongful means in order to attract the patrons of the plaintiff, such as approaching them and inducing them to get on his automobile, stationed at the same parking places used by the plaintiff; wearing a uniform similar to that used by the chauffeurs of the latter; and attempting to listen to the telephone calls for taxicab service directed to the business operated by the plaintiff.
The conclusions reached by the lower court and its weighing of the evidence are entirely erroneous. The identity of the colors used b3 the defendant for painting his automobile and the arrangement of those colors on the top, hood, rear, and fenders of the vehicle can not be regarded as a mere
Where, as in the present case, intentional simulation has been established, any doubt that might arise as to probable confusion should be resolved against the simulator. Stewarts Sandwiches, Inc. v. Seward’s Cafeteria, Inc., 60 F. (2d) 981; Lloyd’s v. Lloyd’s Ltd., 29 R.P.C. 433, 439.
In numerous cases involving the imitation or color combinations used on taxicabs, it has been held that differences such as those pointed out by the lower court as existing between the vehicles of the plaintiff and the taxicab of the defendant were not sufficient to prevent confusion. Yellow Cab Co. v. Creasman, 185 N.C. 551, 117 S.E. 787; Yellow Cab Corp. v. Korpick, 120 Misc. 499, 198 N. Y. S. 864; Taxi & Y. Taxi Operating Co. v. Martin, 91 N. J. Eq. 233, 108 Atl. 763; Yellow Cab v. Becker, 145 Minn. 152, 176 N. W. 345; Black & White Co. v. Weir, 26 Pa. Dist. R. 650 (See 17 A.L.R. 788).
It should be borne in mind that prospective patrons have no opportunity to compare one taxicab with another, and
The lower court erred in not granting the injunction prayed for. The order appealed from will be reversed and the case remanded to the lower court with instructions to issue the writ of preliminary injunction sought, in accordance with the law and the prayer of the petition.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.