Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Patents - Recovery Of Profits In Contempt Proceedings

Michigan Law Review

The facts of this case are stated in the preceding note. The complainant sought to recover in the contempt action the profits of the infringement subsequent to the injunction decree. The circuit court of appeals refused recovery. Held, the decree of the circuit court of appeals should be reversed; profits from the sale of the infringing article are properly an element of the contempt fine. Krentler-Arnold Hinge Last Co. v. Leman (U. S. Feb. 15, 1932) Adv. Op. No. 332. (Reversing the decision in (C. C. A. 1st, 1931) 50 F.(2d) 699).

The Assignment Of Trade Marks And Trade Names, Grover C. Grismore

Michigan Law Review

Unfortunately there is much confusion in the books in regard to the transferability of trade marks and trade names. The law on the matter is neither clearly stated nor always uniformly applied. The generalization that one finds most frequently, both in cases and in text books, is the categorical assertion that trade marks and trade names are not assignable in gross - that they can be transferred only as incidental to a transfer of the business or property in connection with which they have been used. Rightly interpreted, this statement is doubtless a truism. However, the implications frequently drawn from …

A German Work On Trade Marks And Unfair Competition In The United States, Hanna Katz

Michigan Law Review

The acquaintance of German lawyers with American trade-mark law and protection against unfair trading was based until now on the individual studies of persons especially interested in this subject. German textbooks and commentaries on industrial property rights treat international and foreign rules too, but they scarcely give a sufficient notion of how to create a valid trade-mark and protect the trader in his full enjoyment thereof in the U. S. A. Yet the necessity of having such knowledge is a rather broad one in Germany as in all other European countries selling trade-marked articles to their customers on the other …

Copyrights-Radio Reception As Performance Witein Copyright Act

Michigan Law Review

By means of a master receiving set under its operation, and loudspeakers controlled by the guests, installed in its rooms, defendant hotel company made available the hearing of a copyrighted musical composition which had been broadcast. Neither the radio station nor the hotel was authorized to perform it. In a suit against the hotel company for alleged infringement of the copyright, relief was denied on the ground that reception did not constitute a performance within the meaning of the Copyright Act. The case was appealed and that question was certified to the Supreme Court. Held, that reception was essentially …

Contempt-Punishment Of One Not A Party To An Injunction

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff sued A and B for infringement of patent rights. The suit was dismissed as to A and B testified that the business was solely his. A decree was then entered against B, "his agents, employees, associates and confederates * * *," which enjoined them from "infringing, or aiding or abetting, or in any way contributing to the infringement * * *" of the patents. When the decree was entered, A was an employee of B, but subsequently A left B's employ, began his own business, and infringed the patent. The plaintiff began contempt proceedings against A in the …

The Law Of Unfair Competition And Trademarks, Milton Handler

Michigan Law Review

A Review of THE LAW OF UNFAIR COMPETITION AND TRADEMARKS By Harry D. Nims.

International Standing In Court Of Foreign Corporations, Elvin R. Latty

Michigan Law Review

The Supreme Court of Mexico has recently pronounced a decision of more than passing interest to the American Bar, not only because of the legal basis upon which the decision was rendered, but also because of its probable far-reaching consequences. The plaintiff corporation, organized under the laws of Delaware, brought suit for infringement of its trade mark which had been duly registered in Mexico. The Supreme Court held that inasmuch as the plaintiff was not registered in Mexico it had no existence there for the purposes of bring suit. It does not appear that the plaintiff was engaged in business …

Fraudulent Intent In Trade Mark Cases, Grover C. Grismore

Michigan Law Review

One of the troublesome questions which confront the trade mark lawyer is that as to the extent to which a fraudulent intention is an essential element in trade mark litigation. Must a plaintiff who is seeking injunctive relief, or damages, or an accounting against a defendant who", it is alleged, has simulated his trade mark, trade name or other identifying device, show that the latter has consciously sought to mislead the purchasing public? Judges and legal writers leave the matter in doubt. It is the purpose of this paper to discover, if possible, how this doubt has arisen and to …

Protection Of Industrial Property, Edward S. Rogers

Michigan Law Review

It is perhaps too much to attempt a discussion of the origin and history of the common law in an introductory note like this. Suffice it to say that the common law is unwritten and is an inheritance from the English colonists who brought it to North America from England. The common law is the law of the several states. In the United States there is no national common law.

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Treaties-Scope Of Treaty--Making Power--When Treaties Are Self-Executing

Michigan Law Review

The scope of the treaty-making power, and the considerations that govern in determining when a treaty is self-executing and when it requires subsequent legislation to make its terms effective, received an interesting discussion in a recent case decided in the United States District Court of the District of Maryland.

Legal Protection Of Ideas

Michigan Law Review

In the recent Pennsylvania case of Mackay v. Benjamin Franklin Realty & Holding Company, an architect was employed to draw plans for the erection of the Benjamin Franklin Hotel at Philadelphia. For some reason the construction of the hotel was abandoned before the plans were accepted. Later it was again decided to build the hotel, but in the interval the architect had died, and a second architect was employed to draw plans. He, without the consent of the personal representative of the first architect, copied his plans, which were accepted and used in the construction of the building. The …

International Unions For The Protection Of Industrial, Literary And Artistic Property, M. Ostertag

Michigan Law Review

The League of Nations, whose guests we presently are in this handsome city of Geneva, is certainly the most· important of the associations of states because its purpose, the peace of the world, is the most noble. It is also one of the youngest of such associations. You do me a great honor, Ladies and Gentlemen, in asking me to introduce to you today two much older sisters of the League of Nations, sisters whose reputation is indeed less brilliant and universal, but of whom people may perhaps say what they say of married ladies: "The best are always those …

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

Patents-Judicial Legislation

Michigan Law Review

One Deitch conceived an invention in 1912; Doulett conceived the same idea in 1913; Muther conceived it in January, 1914, and Glines in March, 1914. All filed applications for a patent at about the same time, August, 1914, and interference proceedings were begun to determine the right to a patent. Under the express wording of the Patent Act the answer would seem clear. It provides, R. S. 4886, that "any person who has invented or discovered any new and useful art, * * * not known or used by others in this country, before his invention or discovery thereof, * …

Book Reviews, Edward S. Rogers, John Barker Waite

Michigan Law Review

Patent Law. by John Barker Waite, Professor of Law in the University of Michigan Law School. Princeton University Press, x92o.

Copyright And Morals, Edward S. Rogers

Michigan Law Review

The basis for national copyright legislation in this country is Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution: "The Congress shall have power * * * to promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries."

Patent Law, John Barker Waite

Books

The comparatively small size of the book is not due to any conscious superficiality of treatment nor omission of pertinent subject matter. It purports to cover only the substantive law of patents, their nature, validity, effect, and their characteristics as property. Matters of procedure in securing patents or suing on them, and the difficult subject of the amount of compensation recoverable by suit, would require a volume for themselves and are not included here. But of the matter which is included, it has been my desire to present every issue which has come before the courts....

This book is intended …

Account Of Some Psychological Experiments On The Subject Of Trade-Mark Infringement, Edward S. Rogers

Michigan Law Review

iew in June, 1910, entitled, "The Unwary Purchaser, A Study in the Psychology of Trademark Infringement".

Patent Law: Secret Use As Affecting Right To A Patent, John B. Waite

Articles

An unusually obvious piece of judicial legislation, of practical importance to the manufacturing world, was promulgated in the case of Macbeth-Evans Glass Co. v. General Electric Co., 246 Fed. 695. The facts were that in 1903 Macbeth had invented a process for making glass. Since that time the plaintiff company, of which Macbeth was president, had been using that process. This use had, however, been "secret". In 1910 an employee of the plaintiff revealed the process to the Jefferson Glass Co., which at once began to use it, but on application of the Macbeth Co. the state court enjoined the …

The Patentability Of A Mental Process, John B. Waite

Articles

The fact of possession has been so correlated with the theory of property that it is difficult to dissociate ownership from the possibility of physical possession. One finds that the average lawyer, even though he may defind a right in rem as a right enforcible against any person, is extremely apt, unless after especial thought, to explain that it is enforcible against anyone because it pertains to a thing capable of physical possession and control, a thing that could be actually sequestered, from all other persons. Not at all infrequently the term property has been judicially stripped even of its …

Limitations Upon The Use, After Sale, Of Patented Articles, John B. Waite

Articles

In the case of Motion Picture Patents Co. v. Universal Film Co., 37 Sup. Ct. 416, the Supreme Court has just rendered a decision which reverses the much discussed case of Henry v. Dick Co., 224 U. S. 1. The opinion was by a divided court, however, as three of the justices dissented, and Justice McREYNOLDS "concurred in the result" only. It can, therefore, hardly be said to settle the ultimate rule as in contradiction to that followed in Henry v. Dick Co., and discussion of the case is of something more than mere academic value. The facts were that …

The Patentability Of A Principle Of Nature, John B. Waite

Articles

The extent to which courts will go in conceding patentability to a natural law, or principle of nature, is evidenced in the case of Minerals Separation Co. v. Hyde, 37 Sup. Ct. -, decided by the Supreme Court, December 11, 1916. It has always been more or less an axiom of patent law that the discovery of a principle of nature does not entitle the discoverer to a patent for it. The case usually thought of first as authority therefor, is that of Morton v. New York Eye Infirmary, 5 Blatch. 116, 2 Fisher 320. The patentees in that case …

Expensive Futility Of The United States Trade Mark Statute, Edward S. Rogers

Michigan Law Review

Every lawyer of much experience knows the client who tip-toes into his office, closes the door carefully, and with a great show of secrecy announces that he has discovered or invented the best name for a soda cracker, a patent medicine, a soft drink, or what not, that human ingenuity ever conceived. He wants it protected before any one can steal it from him. He wants it "Copyrighted." This is the expression most commonly used. He seems to be under the impression that some incantation can be performed by means of which he will be able to secure to himself …

Note And Comment, George E. Kennedy, John S. Kelley, Donald F. Melhorn, Grover C. Grismore

Michigan Law Review

The Right of the Patentee to Control the Resale Price - Of the recent decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, Bauer and Cie. v. O'Donnell, the so-called Price Maintenance Case, was of vital importance to a large number of manufacturers of patented articles. That this decision had a great effect upon such manufacturers is evidenced by the various ingenious methods ahd devices which have since been adopted by numerous manufacturers to avoid the operation and application of the principles set forth in the decision of that case.

Note And Comment, Ralph W. Aigler, Robert L. Mayall, Sidney E. Doyle, Burke W. Shartel

Michigan Law Review

The Character of User In Prescription - As the possession of the claimant in a case of adverse possession must be shown to have been adverse in order to ripen into title, so also must the user in prescription be shown to have been adverse during -the endure prescriptive period. As to the burden of proving the adverse character of the possession in the first case there seems to be doubt whether there is a presumption of adverseness by showing open possession and acts of ownership, or whether there is a burden upon the claimant to go further. See 2 …

Ingenuity Of The Infringer And The Courts, Edward S. Rogers

Michigan Law Review

The person who imitates a trademark has by common consent come to be described as a "pirate." At the time the designation was first applied, it was more or less appropriate. The pirate saw and coveted his neighbor's successful business, and like any MORGAN, TEACH, SHARKEY, or L'OLLONOIS, sighting a fat galleon laden with plate wallowing in the trade winds, homeward bound from the Indies, he laid himself alongside and took what he wanted. He counterfeited marks and labels as exactly as he could, not as he dared. There was no limit to his impudence. He was deterred only by …

Restrictions On The Use Of Patented Articles, Edward S. Rogers

Michigan Law Review

The case of Henry v. Dick recently decided by the Supreme Court of the United States, has occasioned considerable unfavorable comment in the public press. It seems to be the opinion of many that the decision lays down a new principle of law, particularly adaptable to the working of a monopoly, and that the public is, under the supposed new principle, exposed to a practically unlimited exploitation by any patentee. It is believed that neither of these contentions is correct.

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Bankruptcy--Actos of Bankruptcy--Partnership Preferences; Bankruptcy--constitutional Protection Afforded by the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution; Bankruptcy--Interest--When Payable After Date of Filing Petition and up to date of Payment; Banks and Banking--Payment of Check to Wrong Person--Estoppel; Bills and Notes--Construction of Instrument--Negotiable Notes; bills and Notes--Indorsers--Notice of Dishonor by Telephone--Sufficiency; constitutional Law--Due Process of Law--Criminal Insane; electricity--Interfering Currents; Equity--Injunction Against Unfair Competition; Fishery--In Gross or Appurtenant; Homestead--Abandonment--Removal From State; Insanity--Court Cannot Interfere if Defendant has Refused to Set it up as a Defense at the Trial; Insurance--Foreign Insurance Companies--Liability on Losses Occurring After Dissolution; Libel and Slander--Qualified Privilege--Priest and Congregation; …