Helena Rubinstein, Inc. v. Ladd

• Decision Date: 27 June 1963
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 3332-61.
• Parties: HELENA RUBINSTEIN, INC., Plaintiff, v. David L. LADD, Commissioner of Patents, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

219 F. Supp. 259

138 USPQ 106

HELENA RUBINSTEIN, INC., Plaintiff, v. David L. LADD, Commissioner of Patents, Defendant.

Civ. A. No. 3332-61.

United States District Court District of Columbia.

June 27, 1963.

Amram, Hahn & Sundlun, Washington, D. C., for plaintiff.

Clarence W. Moore, Sol., U. S. Patent Office, Washington, D. C., for defendant.

JACKSON, District Judge.

This is a civil action brought pursuant to 15 U.S.C. § 1071 and 35 U.S.C. § 145 in which plaintiff as the applicant in an action for trademark registration, Serial No. 25,892, filed March 11, 1957, sought to have the Court authorize the Commissioner of Patents to issue to it, on the basis of that application, a certificate of registration for the word "PASTEURIZED" on the Principal Register established by Section 1 of the Trademark Act of 1946.

The Examiner and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board refused to register the mark as being highly descriptive of such a product and that the term is not sufficient to indicate the origin of any product which is capable of being pasteurized when the term is used thereon.

It is alleged in the application that the said mark has been continuously used in plaintiff's business since March 1, 1923, and specimens filed with the application comprised photographs of the containers of applicant's goods, on which the following appears on the front portion thereof:

"Pasteurized" Face Cream Special The Perfect Cleansing and Beauty Cream Helena Rubinstein

It has been the position of the tribunals of the Patent Office that the involved term is so highly descriptive of applicant's face cream that it is incapable of identifying such product and distinguishing it from like goods of others, and that it simply denotes that the cream could be or has been treated by pasteurization. It was not denied in the Patent Office that it had been pasteurized, but the contention made there was that whether or not it was so processed is not material for the reason that it had acquired a secondary meaning as an indication of origin.

The definition of the word "Pasteurization" in Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition (1947) is defined as "The partial sterilization of a fluid at a temperature * * * which does not greatly change its chemical composition * * *".

In the deposition of a witness for plaintiff it was stated that in making the cream the mixture of ingredients was heated up to 130 or 150 degrees Fahrenheit. That is substantially the range of...