Things to Know About Trade-Marks: A Manual of Trade-Mark Information

by J. Walter Thompson Company

It was found that the Patent Office—and its stand was upheld by the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia—would not sanction the registration of a name possessing all the technical requisites of a valid trade-mark if it happened to be the name of the applicant, unless it was written or printed in some particular and distinctive form.

Written in a "particular and distinctive manner" within the meaning of the law.

To a legal mind there may have been some good reason for this attitude of the court, but a layman of ordinary common sense can find nothing in the statute that would justify a refusal to register a trade-mark, valid in other respects, merely because it happened to be the name of the person, corporation, or firm making the application.

The name "Success", a valid mark in every essential respect, was refused registration as a trade-mark for Success Magazine, because it formed part of the name of the applicant, The Success Magazine Company.

The ruling of the court left the implication that if Success Magazine had been published by John Brown & Co., or by any other concern other than the Success Magazine Company, registration would have been granted. It was held that a registration of the name "Success" would be a violation of that provision of the law providing that a mark consisting merely of the name of the applicant could not be registered.

The word "Champion", as a trade-mark for locks, was rejected by the Patent Office on the ground that it formed part of the name of the Champion Safety Lock Company. The word "Champion" is arbitrary and fanciful, and could no doubt have been registered by any other firm than the Champion Safety Lock Company.

Many other similar cases developed during the first six years of the law's application. This situation led to the passage on February 8, 1911, of the following amendment of this section of the Act of 1905:

"Provided, further that nothing herein shall prevent the registration of a trade-mark otherwise registrable because of its being the name of the applicant or a portion thereof."