Abramson v. Coro, Inc.

• Decision Date: 05 February 1957
• Docket Number: No. 16251.,16251.
• Citation: 240 F.2d 854
• Parties: A. J. ABRAMSON and Irwin Schwartz, d/b/a Caro Jewelry Company and Caro, Appellants, v. CORO, Inc., Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

240 F.2d 854 (1957)

A. J. ABRAMSON and Irwin Schwartz, d/b/a Caro Jewelry Company and Caro, Appellants, v. CORO, Inc., Appellee.

No. 16251.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

February 5, 1957.

W. L. Guice, Jacob D. Guice, Rushing & Guice, Biloxi, Miss., for appellants.

Ira M. Millstein, New York City, S. E. Morse, Gulfport, Miss., Weil, Gotshal & Manges; Robert Todd Lang, New York City, of counsel, & Morse & Morse, and George R. Smith, Gulfport, Miss., for appellee.

Before HUTCHESON, Chief Judge, and HOLMES and BORAH, Circuit Judges.

BORAH, Circuit Judge.

The plaintiff, Coro, Inc., brought this action against A. J. Abramson and Irwin Schwartz, doing business as Caro Jewelry Company and Caro to enjoin them from infringing the trademark "Coro" and from engaging in unfair competition and for damages.¹ The defendants denied the charges of infringement and unfair competition. The District Court found all the material facts in favor of plaintiff and entered judgment enjoining defendants from the acts of infringement and unfair competition complained of. From that judgment the present appeal has been taken.

The material facts are in substance as follows: The plaintiff, a New York corporation, has since the year 1901 been engaged in the manufacture, sale, distribution, and promotion of costume jewelry and related items. It has manufacturing plants in the United States, Canada, and England, maintains sales offices and sales representatives throughout the United States and is and has been for many years a leader in the field of costume jewelry, selling to retail department stores, jewelry stores and specialty stores in every state of the Union and in most countries throughout the world. The word "Coro" as a trademark was formulated by joining the first two letters of the names of the founders of the business, Cohen and Rosenberger, and since 1919, plaintiff has used in connection with the sale of its costume jewelry the name and style of "Coro" written both in block letters and in script. In 1921 plaintiff registered with the Commissioner of Patents the name "Coro" as a trademark and has used this trademark continuously since that date. And subsequent thereto it has obtained numerous renewals of its trademark in a number of forms and for a variety of jewelry items and ornaments. Plaintiff has throughout the years expended substantial sums of money in a broad and varied program of advertising with the objective of promoting the name "Coro" and of enhancing the good will attached thereto. Such advertising appears throughout the United States including the states of Louisiana and Mississippi and is conducted through the media of radio, television, national fashion magazines, and newspapers. Plaintiff's products which are sold under the name of "Coro" have met with popular approval throughout the retail trade and the consuming public, its gross sales for the calendar year 1955 being approximately $26,000,000. Plaintiff sells its regular line of products to a number of stores in Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi, and in other towns and cities in that immediate vicinity and certain of its customers who sell Coro jewelry in Biloxi are within a few blocks of the retail jewelry stores owned and operated by the defendants. As a result of its extensive sales and advertising and the promotion of its products under its trademark, the name "Coro" has come to mean the products of plaintiff in the State of Mississippi and the cities of Biloxi and Gulfport as well as in all of the United States, and it is the name of "Coro" which distinguishes plaintiff's products from other similar goods.

Defendants operate a retail jewelry business in Biloxi under the name "Caro" and Caro Jewelry Company. They purchased the store in June 1954 from David Rosenblum who theretofore had sold "Coro" costume jewelry. The defendants do not sell plaintiff's products but they do sell other and competing nationally known makes of costume jewelry of the same type in addition to diamonds, silverware and genuine jewelry. After acquiring the business of Rosenblum, the defendants adopted the name Caro Jewelry Company and have used the name "Caro" in both block and script letters closely imitating the script of "Coro" in plaintiff's trademark in connection with the advertisement and sale of their products and with full knowledge of the prior and extensive use by plaintiff of its trademark "Coro" in connection with the manufacture and sale of items of costume jewelry and various novelties. Although it appears that the attorney for defendants had in early 1954 selected the name "Caro" for the former owner, Rosenblum, because it meant "dear" or "beloved" in Italian, the defendant Schwartz admitted during the course of his cross-examination that he was not aware that the word "Caro" had any meaning in Italian until seven months prior to the trial which was had in March, 1956.

On the basis...