Case Name: Paul RIMMEIR and Germaine Rimmeir, Copartners doing business as Sea View Ventilated Awning Shutters, Appellants, v. Jack DICKSON and Benjamin Horrow, as Copartners doing business as Miami Ventilated Awning Shutter Company, Appellees
Court: Florida Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1955-02-18
Citations: 78 So. 2d 732
Docket Number: 
Parties: Paul RIMMEIR and Germaine Rimmeir, Copartners doing business as Sea View Ventilated Awning Shutters, Appellants, v. Jack DICKSON and Benjamin Horrow, as Copartners doing business as Miami Ventilated Awning Shutter Company, Appellees.
Judges: MATHEWS, C. J., and TERRELL' and SEBRING, JJ., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 78
Pages: 732–738

Head Matter:
Paul RIMMEIR and Germaine Rimmeir, Copartners doing business as Sea View Ventilated Awning Shutters, Appellants, v. Jack DICKSON and Benjamin Horrow, as Copartners doing business as Miami Ventilated Awning Shutter Company, Appellees.
Supreme Court of Florida. En Banc.
Feb. 18, 1955.
Rehearing Denied April 12, 1955.
Seymour Simon and Ward & Ward, Miami, for appellants.
Robert H. Givens, Jr., Miami, for ap-pellees.

Opinion:
ROBERTS, Justice.
The plaintiffs, Dickson and Horrow, doing business as Miami Ventilated Awning Shutter Company, filed suit in the court below for an injunction and damages against the defendant Rimmeir, doing business as Sea View Ventilated Awning Shutters, because of the defendant's alleged infringement of plaintiffs' trade name and unfair competition. The lower court found in plaintiffs' favor and entered a decree enjoining the defendants from
"(a) using the word 'ventilated', or any word similar thereto or having the same root, in their trade name or in. their trademark;
"(b) using the expressions 'ventilated awning' and 'ventilated awning shutter' or the word 'ventilated' to describe or to identify any awning or awning shutter manufactured or sold by said defendants;
"(c) using in their displays, newspaper advertisements, television advertisements, pamphlets or other advertising media, any picture or sketch of an awning or any expression which conveys the impression that the awning manufactured by the defendants is the same awning as the 'ventilated awning' manufactured by the plaintiff; and
"(d) from employing or using in any manner, directly or indirectly, any telephones, telephone service or telephone numbers listed now or hereafter in any telephone book or with any telephone company in any name containing the words 'ventilated awning' or 'ventilated'."
The court also found that the defendants had, between February 1951 and August 1953, realized a net profit of more than $120,000 on sales of awnings, and required them to offer additional evidence before the Special Master as to "what part of the profits if any, was not attributable to their infringement of plaintiffs' trade-name and trademark." (Emphasis supplied.)
On this appeal, the defendants challenge the propriety of both the injunctive and the damage features of the final decree.
As to the injunction, the plaintiffs contend here that the decree of the lower court in this respect should be sustained under the authority of Florida Ventilated Awning Co. v. Dickson, Fla.1953, 67 So.2d 215, 217. There are unquestionably many points of similarity between that case and the instant case. The plaintiffs are the same in both cases, and the defendants in each were former employees of the plaintiffs or their predecessors in title. The relief sought was the same. We decided in that case that the descriptive term "Ventilated Awning" or "Ventilated Awning Shutter" was capable of acquiring and had acquired a secondary meaning by reason of its use by plaintiffs, and that such descriptive term could be protected from infringement by others in a trade name and, also, in advertising and marketing a similar product. It appears that the defendants in that case manufactured and sold an awning which was almost identical with that of the plaintiffs, and that they not only adopted the words "Ventilated Awning" in their trade name, but had also "conducted a general advertising compaign to sell them, in which they employed the identical features, formats, ribbons, checklists, phrases and expressions which complainants had used for years in advertising and marketing their awnings."
The facts developed in this case are different. The defendants' awning shutter is made of aluminum [the plaintiffs' is of redwood] and is ventilated only at the sides, rather than on the top as in plaintiffs' product. It had been sold in the local trade area by the defendants' predecessor in title, All Florida Aluminum Awning Company, Inc., since 1946 under the trade name "Air-O-Blind," and this company's advertising folder had, since that date, used the words "Funnel Type Ventilation for refreshing coolness! Life-Time Awnings are scientifically vented for maximum air movement." The Special Master stated in his report that "In the awning-shutter business many manufacturers selling in this trade territory have from time to time claimed with truth that their products afforded ventilation, and it is true that other manufacturers adopted such trade names as 'Kool Vent', 'Duo Vent', 'Veñtaire', and 'Ventilite'. However, these are fanciful derivations from the root word 'vent' and their employment in the opinion of the Master, was not such pre-emption or contemporaneous use as to defeat plaintiffs' claims to protection against defendants. He found that a similar name was adopted intentionally by the defendants to take advantage of the good will built up by the plaintiffs, their former employer, and that, even if it was unintentional, the similarity between the company names of the plaintiffs and defendants had caused confusion among their customers. Under all the circumstances here, and the rule of stare decisis, we cannot hold the lower court in error for enjoining the defendants from using the word "ventilated" in its trade name, "Sea View Ventilated Awning Shutters," under the authority of the Florida Ventilated Awning Co. case, supra. However, in the face of the finding in this case as to the existence of other trade names based on the root word "vent", we find no justification for enjoining the defendants from adopting a new trade name based on such root word, and that particular portion of paragraph (a), supra, is reversed.
We also affirm paragraph (c) of the final decree, quoted supra, for reasons which are so obvious that they need not be stated.
We cannot, however, find any justification in the record for the injunctive provisions of paragraphs (b) and (d) of the decree, also quoted supra. Paragraph (b) was apparently based on our opinion in Florida Ventilated Awning Co. v. Dickson, supra, 67 So.2d 215, 217, and the ruling there made as to advertising which "conveys the impression that the awnings made and sold by defendants are ventilated awnings" was perhaps justified in the light of all the circumstances and the limitations of the record made before the lower court and brought here in that case. But the record here shows that there are many other awnings on the market in the local trade area which are advertised as affording ventilation, although the ventilation feature is not stressed as much as in the case of the plaintiffs' and the defendants' awnings. Many patents for "ventilated awnings" have been granted by the Patent Office, some of them more than 50 years ago. On the basis of the facts before him, the Special Master recommended only that a decree be entered "commanding the defendants to eliminate the word 'ventilated' from their trade name and enjoining the defendants hereafter from describing their business or their product in any advertising matter, *, wherein the words 'ventilated' or 'ventilation' are used in any manner which reasonably could be calculated to indicate that their business or their product is in anyzmse connected with or has any relation to the business or product of the plaintiffs." (Emphasis added). We think he was right, and have so held by affirming paragraph (c) of the decree, supra; but we think the lower court erred in going further and enjoining the defendants in the manner provided by paragraph (b), supra.
What we have said above applies equally to the use of the words "ventilated awning" or "ventilated" by the defendants in telephone listings, as enjoined by paragraph (d) of the decree, supra.
For the reasons stated, paragraphs (b), (d), and that portion of paragraph (a) which enjoins defendants from using any word similar to the word "ventilated" or having the same root, in their trade name or in their trade-mark, must be reversed.
The only other question is whether the lower court erred in requiring the defendants to offer evidence "as to what part of the profits . if any, was not attributable to their infringement of plaintiffs' trade name and trade-mark." As we understand this requirement of the lower court, it placed on the defendants the burden of proving the plaintiffs' damages. This was error.
It is true, as contended by plaintiffs, that in a suit under the federal TradeMark Act, Title 15 U.S.C.A. § 1117, for infringement of a trade-mark, the plaintiff is required to prove defendant's sales only, and the burden is on the defendant to prove all elements of cost or deduction claimed. Mishawaka Rubber & Woolen Mfg. Co. v. S. S. Kresge Co., 316 U.S. 203, 62 S.Ct. 1022, 86 L.Ed. 1381. But this shifting of the burden of proof appears to be based on the express provisions of the federal Act; and an examination of the original file in the Florida Ventilated Awning Co. case, supra, shows that this same contention was made in that case on rehearing and was disallowed by this court. While it may be that, upon a proper showing, a case may be maintained for infringement of an unregistered trade-mark, we have the view that no such showing has been made in this case. Therefore, we are here concerned only with infringement upon plaintiffs' trade name. If the similarity of the company names diverted trade from plaintiffs to defendants, and this was intentionally done, a court of equity will afford injunctive relief, McGhan v. McGhan, 115 Fla. 414, 155 So. 653, 654; Sentco, Inc. v. McCulloh, Fla.1953, 68 So.2d 577. But the difficulty in assessing damages in such case is immediately apparent. .In fact, in the Florida Ventilated Awning Co. case, tbe lower court found, as a matter of fact, that
"Between'January 1952 and July 3, 1952 the defendants had sold approximately $90,000.00 worth of awnings and approximately 1040 awnings. During the same period plaintiffs sold approximately $300,000.00 worth of awnings. Most of the awnings sold by defendants during that period of time would have been sold by plaintiffs if defendants had not engaged in the deceptive practices aforesaid. If plaintiffs had sold the awnings which defendants sold during said period, the net earnings of plaintiffs would have been more than $15,000.00 greater than they were."
The lower court also found that
"By reason of said conduct on the part of the defendants, plaintiffs have suffered damages by the diversion of business away from them, but there was no definite showing of specific damages which could support or. prompt a granting or award of damages in dollars and cents."
On appeal here, this court held that the lower court did not err in refusing to grant damages, for the reason that "Any sum we awarded would be pure speculation. There must be something to authorize or justify a definite amount in damages before it can be awarded. The chancellor so found and we think he was correct." See also Sentco, Inc., v. McCulloh, Fla. 1953, 68 So. 2d 577.
For the reasons stated, the decree appealed from must also be reversed insofar as it required the defendants to offer evidence as to the portion of their profits which were not attributable to the infringement of plaintiffs' trade name, without prejudice to the right of plaintiffs to make a "definite showing of specific damages", if they can, resulting from the infringement of plaintiffs' trade name by defendants. "
Affirmed in part and reversed in part.
MATHEWS, C. J., and TERRELL' and SEBRING, JJ., concur.
BARNS, J., dissents.