Opinion

Wolf Bros. v. Hamilton-Brown Shoe Co.

  • 165 F. 413
  • 91 C.C.A. 363
  • 1908 U.S. App. LEXIS 4769
Court
Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
Filed
Nov 17, 1908
Status
Published
Author
Sanborn
On the bench
Devanter, Munger, Sanborn
Cited by
15 cases
Authority
More cited than 16.4%

The opinion

SANBORN, Circuit Judge

(dissenting). If the alleged trademark were the “American Shoe,” it would be invalid, because that term would constitute a geographical name of the shoe; but the title “The American Girl,” when applied to a shoe, is, in my opinion, an arbitrary and fanciful name, and hence constitutes a valid trademark, when it comes to designate the origin or manufacture of the shoe. It was not a geographical description of the shoe, because it does not state or indicate that it was made, or sold, or used, in America. It was not, when first applied by the complainant. to the shoe, and before he had taught the trade its meaning, descriptive of the shoe, or of its materials or characteristics (and that is the true test—Wellcome v. Thompson & Capper, 1 L. R. Ch. Div. 1904, 736, 742, 749, 750, 754; Keasbey v. Chemical Works, 142 N. Y. 467, 471, 474, 475, 476 , 37 N. E. 476 , 40 Am. St. Rep. 623 ), because it described nothing but a girl, and the term “American Girl” was just as descriptive of a coat, or a hat, or a glove, or a car, or an engine, or any other manufactured article, as it was of a shoe; that is to say, it was not descriptive of a shoe in any way whatever. It was nothing but an arbitrary, fanciful term, which the complainant, by means of its advertisements and its use, caused to indicate to the trade that the shoe to which it was applied originated in the com.plainant’s shops and was made by it. For these reasons I am of the opinion that the term “American Girl,” when applied to a shoe, constitutes a valid trade-mark; that the defendant infringed upon the right of the complainant thereto by the use of the term the “American Lady” to designate a class of shoes which it sold; and that on ac *419 count of that infringement it should be enjoined from the use of that term, and should account to the complainant from the date of the filing of the bill.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

A word about cookies

We need a few to keep you signed in and the library working. The rest help us see which pages people use and where they get stuck. They stay off unless you say yes.