The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-04-29 00:00:00

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

VICE-CHANCELLOR'S COURT.—APRIL 24TH.
(Before Sir L. SHADWELL.)

DOLLAND V. REED AND DELL

Mr. BETFIELL moved for an injunction on behalf of
Mr. Dotland, of St. Paul's Church-yard, London, the ce-
lebrated optian, to restrain the defendants from engraving
his name on any telescopes manufactured by them ; or
from selling any telescopes with his name, or any colour-
able imitation of it engraved thereon. The learned coun-
sel stated, that the plaintiff inherited the discovery and
reputation of his eminent ancestor, John Dollond, who,
in the year 1758, invented the Achromatic Telescope,
which was considered at that time, and down to the pre-
sent, as, perhaps, the greatest discovery every made, and
which had eluded the observation of the immortal New-
ton. John Dollond had the friendship of all the eminent
men of science of that day and the learned counsel eulo-
gised in the highest terms the Achromatic Telescope, and
stated that a patent had been granted for it in the reign of
George 11. The great reputation the Achromatic Teles-
cope had attained, had given occasions to all sorts of e.,-
lourable imitations of the plaintlfrd name, such as " Dol-
land," " Dolood," and " Do'and," and sometimes it
was spelt correctly ; and with these names so fraudently
engraved thereon, telescopes were sold in this country, as
well as abroad ; and they were often brought by the pub.
lic to the plaintiff's shop, where they were instantly de-
tected as never having been made or sold by the plaintiff.
These practices were a great injury to the plaintiff, both
pecuniarily, and in his reputation as an optician ; and be
had for some years been endeavouring to find out by whom
such frauds were committed, but without success, until
the present occurrence. The present application was in-
tended to put a stop to such fraudulent practices. In
the present instance, the defendants had engraved the
plaintiff's name correctly on some telescopes ; and the
fact of their doing so became known to the plaintiff in the
early part of the present month, in consequence of a
workman of the defendants calling at the plaintiff's shop
to make an enquiry ; and in the course of doing so, be
inadvertently produced two telescopes out cf a bag (where
he had others) to the plaintiff's clerk; who, upon seeing
them, saw they had never been manufactured or sold by
the plaintiff, and instantly pronounced the name of the
plaintiff engraved thereon to be a forgery. The man be-
came confused, and said he should loose his situation for
what he had done, and hoped the clerk would not mention
it to the plaintiff. The clerk replied he should, and did
so; upon which the present application was made.
The Vice-Chancellor.--It is the clearest case I ever
knew. It appears to me, to be a matter of a great impor-
tance ttlat this should be made publicly known, because,
if theseinferior telescopes are used by merchant vessels,
by yachts, and so on, they might produce the greatest
mischief.
Mr. Bethell.—The mischief, your honour knows, to
merchant ships, and all persons buying them, can scarcely
be calculated. From these telescopes of Mr. Dolland,
I believe the greatest benefits in the world have been
derived to all persons who have had occasion to use

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them.
I The Vice-Chancellor.--Yon may take the injunction.