Garcia v. Garcia
Garcia v. Garcia
Opinion of the Court
(after stating the facts as above).
The legal principles governing the situation presented have been applied so frequently in leading cases within this circuit that extended discussion is unnecessary. Such are the cases of Pillsbury v. Flour Mills Co., 64 Fed. 841, 12 C. C. A. 432; Meyer v. Medicine Co., 58 Fed. 884, 7 C. C. A. 558; Stuart v. F. G. Stewart Co., 91 Fed. 243, 33 C. C. A. 480; Kathreiner’s Malzkaffee Fabriken mit Beschraenkter Haftung v. fastor Kneipp Med. Co., 82 Fed. 321, 27 C. C. A. 351; Peck Bros. & Co. v. Peck Bros. Co., 113 Fed. 291, 51 C. C. A. 251, 62 L. R. A. 81; Chickering v. Chickering & Sons, 120 Fed. 69, 50 C. C. A. 475; Charles E. Hires Co. v. Consumers’ Co., 100 Fed. 809, 41 C. C. A. 71.
In Meyer v. Medicine Co., the doctrine is thus stated:
“While the right can be denied to no one to employ his name in connection with his business, or in connection with articles of his own production, so as to show the business or product to be his, yet he should not be allowed to designate his article by his own name in 'such a way as to cause it to he mistaken for the manufacture or goods of another already on the market under the same or a similar name. Whether it be his name*640 or some other possession, every one, by the familiar maxim, must so use his own as not to injure the possession or rights of another.”
And in Singer Mfg. Co. v. June Mfg. Co., 163 U. S. 169, 16 Sup. Ct. 1002, 41 L. Ed. 118, which is cited in Stuart v. Stewart, supra, it is more fully stated as follows:
‘‘This fact is fully recognized by the well-settled doctrine which holds that'‘every one has the absolute right to use his own name honestly in his own business, even though he may thereby incidentally interfere with and injure the business of another having the same name. In such case the inconvenience or loss to which those having a common right are subjected is damnum absque injuria. But although he may thus use his name, he cannot resort to any artifice or do any act calculated to mislead the public as to the identity of the business firm or establishment, or of the article produced by them, and thus produce injury to the other beyond that which results from the similarity of names.’ (Citing cases.) Where the name is one which has previously thereto come to indicate the source of manufacture of particular devices, the use of - such name by another, unaccompanied with any precaution or indication, in itself amounts to an artifice calculated to produce the deception alluded to in the foregoing adjudications. Indeed, the enforcement of the right of the public to use a generic name, dedicated as the results of a monopoly, has always, where the facts required it, gone hand in hand with the necessary regulation to make it accord with the private property of others, and the requirements of public policy. The courts have always, in every such case, without exception, treated the one as the correlative or resultant of the other.”
The defendant being a sole trader, there can be no pretense that any of the names which contain the combination of “Garcia,” or “F. Garcia,” with the word “Bros.” or “Brothers,” is truly descriptive of his business, or that it is his true name. The evidence shows beyond controversy the facts claimed by the complainants, that the names “F. Garcia &' Bros.,” “Garcia Brothers,” “F. Garcia Brothers,” and the like, had become known throughout the United States as the complainants’ trade and businesss name, and as applied! certainly to them and cigars of their manufacture; that, of these names, “F. Garcia & Bros.” had been used and applied by the complainants as a brand name; and that it was so known in the trade as designating such particular brand of cigars of the complainants’ manufacture. It is also very clear that the predecessors of the defendant and the defendant adopted and used one or more of these names after the complainants had adopted the-one name as their firm and business name, and after all of such names had become known as designating, either generally the cigars of complainants’ manufacture, or particularly a brand of cigars of their manufacture which was made and marketed under such particular name.
Under the principles of the cases above cited, there can be no doubt as to the necessary conclusion to be reached. The adoption by the defendant of the identical names which the complainants had adopted as their true trade-name, and which had come to designate their product, would alone entitle the complainants to relief. Such name or names had become the means of describing the goods manufactured by the complainants, both by those who dealt in them and those who consumed them; and, to use the language of Chickering v. Chickering & Sons, supra, “that name was to the public an assurance of
The complainants are entitled to a decree in accordance with the prayer of their bill.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- GARCIA v. GARCIA
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Trade-Marks and Trade-Names (§ 59*) — Infringement of Trade-Name. Two brothers manufacturing well-known brands of cigars under the trade-name “F. Garcia & Bros.” are entitled to enjoin defendant, Frank Garcia, a sole trader, from using the names “F. Garcia & Bros.,” “Garcia Bros.,” and any like combination of the name “Garcia” with “Bros.,” either as a trade or business name, or as designating cigars not of complainants’ manufacture, where it appears that complainants’ name has been used on defendant’s boxes in such manner as to tend to deceive the public, though defendant’s brothers, as his predecessors, used the name “Garcia Bros.”; • complainants having a superior right as against them. [Ed. Note. — For other cases, see Trade-Marks and Trade-Names, Cent. Dig. §§ 68-72; Dec. Dig. § 59.*] 2. Trade-Marks and Trade-Names (§ 66*) — Infringement of Trade-Name —Right to Enjoin. Complainants’ right to enjoin infringement of their trade-names is unaffected by the amount of business done by defendant. [Ed. Note. — For other cases, see Trade-Marks and Trade-Names, Dec. Dig. § 66.*]