Case ID: ny_224/html/0670-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Material Men’s Mercantile Association, Limited, Appellant, v. New York Material Men’s Mercantile Association, Incorporated, et al., Respondents.
    
      Material Men’s Mercantile Assn., Ltd. v. N. Y. Material Men’s Mercantile Assn., Inc., 169 App. Div. 843, affirmed.
    (Argued October 24, 1918;
    decided November 12, 1918.)
    Appeal from a judgment of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the first judicial department, entered January 18, 1916, reversing a judgment in favor of defendants entered upon a dismissal of the complaint by the court on trial at Special Term and directing judgment for plaintiff although not to the extent demanded in the complaint. The action was in equity to enjoin the defendants from conducting their business under their corporate name upon the grounds that -the words “ Material Men’s,” in the corporate name of plaintiff, had by long user in its business acquired a secondary meaning and were generally understood in the trade as referring to the plaintiff and its business; that the business of plaintiff and defendant being the same, the corporate name of the defendant was so similar to that of the plaintiff that it was calculated to mislead the public, and that the adoption thereof was in violation of section 6 of chapter 28 of the Laws of 1909. The Appellate Division held that while the evidence was not sufficient to warrant the court in deciding that the plaintiff is entitled to the exclusive use of the words “ Material Men’s ” in its corporate name, yet that the defendant should not be permitted .to use those words in its name without accompanying them by other words clearly distinguishing the defendant from the plaintiff.
    
      Frank M. Avery, Edgar J. Phillips and Earl A. Darr for appellant.
    
      Hiram Thomas for respondents.
   Judgment affirmed, with costs; no opinion.

Concur: Hiscock, Ch. J., Chase, Collin, Cuddeback and Hogan, JJ. Not sitting: McLaughlin, J. Absent: Crane, J.