Federal-Mogul-Bower Bearings, Inc. v. Azoff
| Decision Date | 15 February 1963 |
| Docket Number | No. 14920.,14920. |
| Parties | FEDERAL-MOGUL-BOWER BEARINGS, INC., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Martin AZOFF, Harry Kekst, Hilmar Rosenthal, jointly and severally and as copartners doing business as and under the name and style of Cuyahoga Auto Parts & Salvage, Cuyahoga Motor Remanufacturers, Cuyahoga Auto Parts, Cuyahoga Auto Wrecking, Tepco Truck Engine Parts, and Tepco Engine Remanufacturing Division, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Arthur W. Dickey, Detroit, Mich. (Harness, Dickey & Pierce, Detroit, Mich., on the brief), for appellant.
John C. Oberlin, Cleveland, Ohio (Oberlin, Maky & Donnelly, Cleveland, Ohio, of counsel, on brief), for appellees.
Before McALLISTER, WEICK and O'SULLIVAN, Circuit Judges.
Appellant seeks review of an order dismissing its complaint on the ground that it did not state a cause of action. It is the contention of appellant that it alleged in its complaint sufficient facts to maintain its claim against appellees, for false description and representation, under the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C.A. § 1125(a).
The above section of the Lanham Act provides:
The following allegations appear in the complaint:
Appellant is a corporation organized under the laws of Michigan, having its principal office in Detroit. Appellees are copartners, having their principal place of business in Cleveland, Ohio. Appellant company has, for many years, been engaged in manufacturing, transporting, distributing, marketing, and selling, both in interstate commerce and foreign commerce, engine bearings and connecting rods for internal combustion engines, which have been sold and distributed in packages and containers, which are distinguished by features, including the size of the container, the symbol, printing, background, general arrangements, form, and the coloration thereof. These packages and containers of appellant, according to the complaint, have long been known, and are presently recognized by the trade and by the public in interstate and foreign commerce as identifying and distinguishing the engine bearings and connecting rods contained in these packages and containers, as being the product of appellant, and, further, as identifying the appellant as the source of these bearings and connecting rods. Thereby appellant has acquired and enjoys a large and valuable reputation of good will with the trade and with the public, both domestic and foreign, for its engine bearings and connecting rods which are contained and marketed in these distinctive packages and containers.
The complaint further alleged:
Appellees, within several months prior to the initiation of this action, and during its pendency, transported and continued to transport, distribute, market, sell, and cause to be entered into and used in commerce, both interstate and foreign, and particularly in foreign commerce, engine bearings and connecting rods which compete with the engine bearings and connecting rods of appellant, and these engine bearings and connecting rods of appellees were being so transported, sold, or otherwise placed in interstate and foreign commerce in packages and containers, which imitate and so nearly resemble the packages and containers of appellant in the connection of distinctive features, as to falsely represent the engine bearings and connecting rods packaged in appellees' containers as being the goods of appellant, and also as being goods originating from appellant.
The complaint further declared that the false representations of appellees are such as to be likely to cause confusion in trade and commerce, and particularly in foreign commerce, of appellees' bearings and connecting rods with those of appellant; that appellees had knowledge of appellant's trade and commerce, particularly foreign commerce in its engine bearings and connecting rods, and deliberately adopted and used the imitative packages and containers with an intent to deceive the trade and public, and particularly those who do not readily read or understand the English language, into mistaking and confusing the engine bearings and connecting rods of appellees for, and with, those of appellant; that the acts of appellees were done with, and for the purpose of, unlawfully appropriating and trading upon the good will and reputation of appellant; and that appellees, in so using the imitative packages and containers not only falsely represent that their bearings and connecting rods are the product of appellant, but also falsely represent that these products originate with appellant.
The acts of appellees, it was claimed by appellant, had caused, and were causing great and irreparable damage to appellant's business, reputation, and good will in the manufacture, distribution and sale of its products in interstate and foreign commerce.
Under the Lanham Act, above quoted, any person who shall use, in connection with any containers for goods, a false designation of origin, or any false description or representation, including symbols tending falsely to represent the same, and shall with knowledge of the falsity of such designation of origin, or description, procure the same to be transported or used in commerce, is liable to a civil action by any person doing business in the locality falsely...
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...was created to protect "a broad class of suitors." Id. Another significant case interpreting § 43(a) is Federal-Mogul-Bower Bearings, Inc. v. Azoff, 313 F.2d 405 (6th Cir.1963). Prior to Azoff, "false designation of origin" was believed to apply only to false advertising of geographic origi......
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