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Trade Marks And Trade Names - Unfair Competition - Restrictions On Use Of Personal Name, Reed T. Phalan

Michigan Law Review

For many years plaintiff and its predecessors used the name "Dougherty's" in marketing straight whiskey throughout the United States. In 1939 defendant, Edwin L. Dougherty, began selling blended whiskey in Pennsylvania, likewise using the name "Dougherty's," to dominate his labels, and in 1940, pursuant to a previously formed intention, plaintiff began selling blended whiskey under the same name. Plaintiff brought an action to enjoin defendant's use of the name "Dougherty's." Held, through plaintiff's prior use, the name "Dougherty's" had come to be associated by the purchasing public with plaintiff's whiskey; therefore defendant's use of the same name to dominate …