Champion Spark Plug Co. v. Sanders, Civil Action No. 3767.

• Decision Date: 29 August 1944
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 3767.
• Citation: 56 F. Supp. 787
• Parties: CHAMPION SPARK PLUG CO. v. SANDERS et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York

56 F. Supp. 787

CHAMPION SPARK PLUG CO. v. SANDERS et al.

Civil Action No. 3767.

District Court, E. D. New York.

August 29, 1944.

Ward, Crosby & Neal, of New York City, for plaintiff.

John Wilson Hood, of New York City, for defendants.

BYERS, District Judge.

After the filing of the decision of June 15, 1944, 56 F.Supp. 782, a motion was made by the plaintiff, the object of which was to file affidavits of four persons in the employ of the plaintiff: Brace H. Sibley, Frank H. Riddle, Herbert F. Royal, and Wilfrid R. Foster, whose affidavits are dated July 6 and 7, 1944, respectively, for use in formulating the order to be entered on the decision.

The matters covered are:

(1) That the suggestion of the Court that the prefix "Ex" with a hyphen be applied to the defendants' product, both on the spark plugs themselves and on their containers, would perhaps cause confusion, in view of the trade-mark used by the plaintiff on certain of its products, "Champion X". This seems to be far-fetched and of little moment.

(2) That the word "Champion" on the spark plugs sold by the defendants can be easily and cheaply removed by the application of a solution containing hydrofluoric acid, muriatic acid and water, followed by rinsing in water, without deleterious effect upon the porcelain element of the plugs, for the reason that since the word "Champion" does not penetrate the glaze its removal need not do that, as the word itself is applied to glazed insulators "by means of ink on rubber type, the red color being composed of iron oxide ground in printer's special oil. After the color is transferred to the insulators, they are passed through a decorating furnace and heated to a temperature of approximately 1400° F. to burn the color firmly onto the glaze, as is done in the ordinary process of decorating china; thus the decoration is on the surface of the glaze and not underneath the glaze, which has previously been fired at a much higher temperature."

That such removal of the word "Champion" through the application of the acid solution would not impair the glaze is stated as follows: "The acid affects only an infinitesimal depth of the glaze surface, without affecting its ability to resist accumulations of moisture or dirt."

The object of these affidavits is to fortify the plaintiff's assertion that it is entitled to an injunction prohibiting the defendants from retaining the word "Champion" on the spark plugs, even with the prefix "Ex-" as suggested by the...