UNFAIR TRADE-RIGHT OF PRIVACY-RIGHT OF MANUFACTURER WHO HAS CONTRACTED FOR USE OF CELEBRITY'S NAME TO INJUNCTION AGAINST COMPETITOR USING SUCH NAME

Authors

Abstract

Plaintiff, a baseball bat manufacturer, had obtained by contract with famous ball players a grant of the exclusive right to use their autographs on the style bats which the plaintiff company had developed for them. Defendant, a competing bat manufacturer, made bats in these same unpatented shapes and to designate the style of the bats placed the respective players' surnames on them in block letters. Plaintiff seeks to enjoin this practice of the defendant on the theory: (1) of unfair competition, and (2) of protection of the property right which the ball players had in the use of their names. Held, injunction refused, since there was no evidence that defendant's bats were being passed off as plaintiff's bats, and since the ball players had no property right in their names which could have been passed to plaintiff by assignment. However, since the evidence tended to show that defendant's use of the names might induce some people to buy defendant's bats thinking the players were using bats made by defendant, the defendant was ordered to put the word "style" after the players' surnames in the same size type. Hanna Mfg. Co. v. Hillerich & Bradsby Co., (C. C. A. 5th, 1935) 78 F. (2d) 763.

Recommended Citation

UNFAIR TRADE-RIGHT OF PRIVACY-RIGHT OF MANUFACTURER WHO HAS CONTRACTED FOR USE OF CELEBRITY'S NAME TO INJUNCTION AGAINST COMPETITOR USING SUCH NAME, 34 Mich. L. Rev. 588 (1936).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol34/iss4/26