TRADE-MARKS -- MAP AS A TRADE-MARK REGISTERABLE UNDER ACT OF 1905

Authors

Philip A. Hart Jr., University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

Canada Dry Ginger Ale filed an application for the registration, under the Trade-Mark Act of February 20, 1905, as amended, of a colored map of Canada used by it as a trade-mark for maltless beverages sold as soft drinks. The Commissioner of Patents ruled the mark was not a valid trademark at common law and was intended to fall within the statutory prohibition against the registry of "merely a geographical name or term." On appeal, Canada Dry asserted that the mark was a valid common-law trade-mark, and that even though not otherwise registerable, it became so by virtue of a secondary meaning acquired by long exclusive use. Held, that it was not a valid common-law trade-mark, because the map "conveys the same idea that the word 'Canada,' without the map, would convey, and either the map--or the word-would be understood by purchasers as indicating that the goods were produced in Canada"; and, that a geographic term descriptive of the place where the articles were manufactured is not registerable even though it has acquired a secondary meaning. In re Canada Dry Ginger Ale, Inc., (Cust. & Pat. App. 1936) 86 F. (2d) 830.

Recommended Citation

Philip A. Hart Jr., TRADE-MARKS -- MAP AS A TRADE-MARK REGISTERABLE UNDER ACT OF 1905, 35 Mich. L. Rev. 1403 (1937).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol35/iss8/27