TRADE-MARKS - UNFAIR COMPETITION - RIGHT TO PROHIBIT THE USE OF ONE'S PERSONAL NAME AS A TRADE-MARK

Authors

Abstract

The plaintiff, De Nobili Cigar Co., had, over a period of years, added a secondary significance to its name when the defendant corporation organized, taking its name, F. G. Nobile Cigar Co., from one of its members who was not a manufacturer of cigars, and who received stock for such use of his name and his managerial ability. The lower court decreed that the labels of the defendant should be so changed as to be distinguishable from those of the plaintiff and that the phrase, "of Providence, R. I.," be added to its name to distinguish it from the plaintiff of New York. Held, by the Circuit Court of Appeals, that a personal name should not be chosen by a corporation so as to displace the good will of another fraudulently or to confuse its goods with those of a manufacturer who has built up a secondary significance to his name. Therefore the defendant, having been found guilty of fraud, was prohibited from using the word "Nobile" or a word similar to it as a part of its corporate name. De Nobili Cigar Co. v. Nobile Cigar Co., (C. C. A. 1st, 1932) 56 F. (2d) 324.

Recommended Citation

TRADE-MARKS - UNFAIR COMPETITION - RIGHT TO PROHIBIT THE USE OF ONE'S PERSONAL NAME AS A TRADE-MARK, 31 Mich. L. Rev. 292 (1932).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol31/iss2/28