Case ID: f2d_18/html/0192-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "ROBB, Associate Justice.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

NAAMLOOZE VENNOOTSCHAP LAKVERF & VERNISFABRIEK "IVORMICA” v. SHERWIN-WILLIAMS CO.
    (No.1871.)
    (Court of Appeals of District of Columbia.
    Submitted January 18, 1927.
    Decided March 7, 1927.)
    Trade-marks and trade-names and unfair competition <©=>43 — Registration of trade-mark consisting of globe and tilted paint can held to preclude another’s registration of similar mark for use on same goods.
    Opposer’s adoption and use of trade-mark, consisting of terrestial globe and representation of tilted paint can discharging its contents over upper half of globe, together with the phrase “cover the earth,” held to preclude another’s registration of mark consisting of globe to which paint is being applied in somewhat different manner for use on same class of goods.
    Appeal from Decision, of Commissioner of Patents. '
    Application by the -Naamlooze Vennootscbap Lakverf & Vernisfabriek “Ivormiea” for registration of trade-mark opposed by the Sherwin-Williams Company. Prom a decision of the Commissioner of Patents, sustaining opposition, applicant appeals. Affirmed.
    J. T. Newton, of Washington, D. C., for appellant.
    J. B. Pay and T. H. Pay, both of Cleve-. land, Ohio, for appellee.
    Before MARTIN, Chief Justice, ROBB, Associate Justice, and GRAHAM, Presiding Judge of the United States Court of Customs Appeals.
   ROBB, Associate Justice.

Appeal from concurrent decisions of the Patent Office tribunals, in a trade-mark opposition proceeding, sustaining the opposition and denying registration to appellant.

Many years prior to the'adoption and use of its mark by the applicant, the opposer, the Sherwin-Williams Company, adopted a mark consisting of a terrestial globe and a representation of a tilted paint can discharging its contents over the upper half of the globe. The phrase “Cover the Earth” has been used by the opposer, in connection with its pictorial device. A very large business has been built up by the opposer, and the mark has great value.

Applicant’s mark is applied to goods of the same class. It also uses a representation of the globe, to which paint is being applied in a manner somewhat different from that employed in the Sherwin-Williams mark, but an ocular inspection of the two marks discloses that they are deceptively similar. The decision therefore is affirmed.

Affirmed.