Co v. Koke Co of America v. 18 19, 1920, COCA-COLA

• Decision Date: 06 December 1920
• Docket Number: COCA-COLA,No. 101,101
• Parties: CO. v. KOKE CO. OF AMERICA et al. Argued Nov. 18 & 19, 1920
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

254 U.S. 143

41 S.Ct. 113

65 L.Ed. 189

COCA-COLA CO.

v KOKE CO. OF AMERICA et al.

No. 101.

Argued Nov. 18 & 19, 1920.

Decided Dec. 6, 1920.

Messrs. Frederick W. Lehmann, of St. Louis, Mo., Frank F. Reed and Edward S. Rogers, both of Chicago, Ill., and Harold Hirsch, of Atlanta, Ga., for petitioner.

Messrs. Richard E. Sloan, of Phoenix, Ariz., and Joseph W. Bailey, of Washington, D. C., for respondents.

Mr. Justice HOLMES delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is a bill in equity brought by the Coca-Cola Company to prevent the infringement of its trade-mark Coca-Cola and unfair competition with it in its business of making and selling the beverage for which the trade-mark is used. The District Court gave the plaintiff a decree. 235 Fed. 408. This was reversed by the Circuit Court of Appeals. Koke Co. v. Coca-Cola Co., 255 Fed. 894, 167 C. C. A. 214. Subsequently a writ of certiorari was granted by this Court. 250 U. S. 637, 39 Sup. Ct. 493, 63 L. Ed. 1183.

It appears that after the plaintiff's predecessors in title had used the mark for some years it was registered under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1881 (21 Stat. 502), and again under the Act of February 20, 1905, c. 592, 33 Stat. 724 (Comp. St. § 9485 et seq.). Both the Courts below agree that subject to the one question to be considered the plaintiff has a right to equitable relief. Whatever may have been its original weakness, the mark for years has acquired a secondary significance and has indicated the plaintiff's product alone. It is found that defendant's mixture is made and sold in imitation of the plaintiff's and that the word 'Koke' was chosen for the purpose of reaping the benefit of the advertising done by the plaintiff and of selling the imitation as and for the plaintiff's goods. The only obstacle found by the Circuit Court of Appeals in the way of continuing the injunction granted below was its opinion that the trade-mark in itself and the advertisements accompanying it made such fraudulent representations to the public that the plaintiff had lost its claim to any help from the Court. That is the question upon which the writ of certiorari was granted and the main one that we shall discuss.

Of course a man is not to be protected in the use of a device the very purpose and effect of which is to swindle the public. But the defects of a plaintiff do not offer a very broad ground for allowing another to swindle him. The defence relied on here should be scrutinized with a critical eye. The main point is this: Before 1900 the beginning of the good will was more or less helped by the presence of cocaine, a drug that, like alcohol of caffein or opium, may be described as a deadly poison or as a valuable item of the pharmacopoeia according to the rhetorical purposes in view. The amount seems to have been very small, but it may have been enough to begin a bad habit and after the Food and Drug Act of June 30, 1906, c. 3915 (Comp. St. §§ 8717-8728), if not earlier, long before this suit was brought, it was eliminated from the plaintiff's compound. Coca leaves still are used, to be sure, but after they have been subjected to a drastic process that removes from them every characteristic substance except a little tannin and still less chlorophyl. The cola nut, at best, on its side furnishes but a small portion of the caffein, which now is the only element that has appreciable effect. That comes mainly from other sources. It is argued that the continued use of the name imports a representation that has ceased to...