Reports of Cases Decided in the Court of Chancery of the State of New Jersey Volume 77 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911 edition. Excerpt: ...imitated any trade-mark or name of complainant, in violation of complainant's rights, or that in the manner of placing its name and the name of its goods upon its boxes, it has counterfeited, copied or imitated the manner of placing the name of the complainant upon complainant's goods or boxes. The evidence does not sustain this averment. In the case of some, at least, of defendant's cans and packages there is undoubtedly a design to imitate the make-up of complainant's cans and packages. The principle controversy, however, hinges upon the use by defendant of the words "Nonfluid oil." As to this, defendant says that the name was employed as a descriptive designation of the goods which it manufactured and sold; that the words composing it are words in general use in the English language, having a definite and well established meaning, and that as such they may be used by anyone who manufactures and sells goods of which the words are properly descriptive. This insistment would, no doubt, be sound if the lubricant that both parties make be, in fact, an oil. The undisputed evidence, however, shows that neither party manufactures an oil, properly so called. What they do put out is a grease. The two substances are so dissimilar that complainant founds his case upon the admitted difference. Were it not for the dissimilarity, it is conceded that complainant would have no exclusive right, for the reason that neither the descriptive adjective "nonfluid," nor the noun "oil," are capable of exclusive appropriation by any single manufacturer, if used in their proper sense. The complainant in his bill charges that the term "Nonfluid oil" is an arbitrary, fanciful and distinguishing name or trademark, applied by it to...