City of Indian Hills v. Indian Hills Development Co.

• Decision Date: 13 May 1949
• Citation: 310 Ky. 104
• Parties: City of Indian Hills v. Indian Hills Development Co.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky

310 Ky. 104

City of Indian Hills v. Indian Hills Development Co.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky. Chancery Branch, First Division.

March 22, 1949.

Rehearing denied May 13, 1949.

1. Trade-mark and Trade-names and Unfair Competition. — A geographical term or name cannot be appropriated exclusively as a valid trade-mark or trade-name.

2. Trade-mark and Trade-names and Unfair Competition. — The city of Indian Hills could not assert right to use name "Indian Hills" to exclusion of private corporation developing a subdivision under name "Indian Hills Subdivision, Cherokee Unit No. 1," where name "Indian Hills" was recognized geographical term applying to area in which both city and subdivision were located, and city and corporation were engaged in vastly different activities and there was no element of competition between them.

Appeal from Jefferson Circuit Court.

W.A. Armstrong, D.E. Armstrong and W.J. Goodwin for appellant.

Stanley Newhall and Davis W. Edwards for appellee.

Before Lawrence F. Speckman, Judge.

OPINION OF THE COURT BY JUDGE CAMMACK.

Affirming.

This appeal is from a judgment denying the City of Indian Hills the exclusive right to use the name, Indian Hills. The parties agree that the name, Indian Hills, is a geographical term which was given to a section of Jefferson County lying east of Louisville. It is the position of the City that it has had exclusive right to use the name since the time of its incorporation in 1942, and also that the area now being developed by the Indian Hills Development Company, a private corporation, under the name, Indian Hills Subdivision, Cherokee Unit No. 1, but which is actually referred to in newspaper advertising as the Indian Hills Cherokee Section, lies approximately one mile east of the area originally known as Indian Hills.

In 1924, the Development Company acquired two tracts of land, one of which was referred to in the deed as Indian Hill. In 1926, the Company developed a section known as Indian Hills Subdivision, Country Club Unit. In 1940, the Company developed the remainder of the lands acquired by it in 1924 into a subdivision known as Indian Village. In 1942, the City of Indian Hills was incorporated. It included all of the original Indian Hills Subdivision, Country Club Unit, and a part of the Indian Village Subdivision. The Company still owned a number of lots in those two subdivisions when the City was incorporated and it raised no question as to the use of the name, Indian Hills. In 1925, the Company acquired another tract of land and it was a part of this tract which it began developing in 1947 under the name, Indian Hills Subdivision, Cherokee Unit No. 1. This action followed, which resulted in the chancellor sustaining demurrers to both the original and amended petition.

As we have noted, it is agreed that the name in question is a geographical one. The City is not questioning the right of the Company to use its corporate name, but it is objecting to the use of the name, Indian Hills, in connection with what it terms "another subdivision." It asserts that the disputed name has long been applied to the area within its corporate limits; that it is an expensive and desirable...