Court Opinion

ID: 9650564
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 15:44:13.857537+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:23.463302
License: Public Domain

MANTON, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
“Leche de Magnesia” is the Spanish for “Milk of Magnesia.” It cannot be said to be commonly understood by an English-speaking public. The trade-mark for this name was registered under the “ten-year” clause of the Trade-Mark Act of 1905 (section 5). Registration under this section was possible because of the exclusive use by its owner for ten years prior to 1905-, and the fact that the mark had acquired secondary meaning. It is no bar to registration that the words are somewhat descriptive. Thaddeus Davids Co. v. Davids, 233 U. S. 461, 34 S. Ct. 648, 58 L. Ed. 1046; Rossmann v. Gamier, 211 F. 401 (C. C. A. 8). Section 5 contemplates that any mark which was not a technical trade-mark but which had been actively and exclusively used by the applicant, or his predecessors, for the required time, could be registered as a trade-mark. There is ample evidence that the term “Leche de Magnesia” was meaningless even to the drug trade. We are only concerned with its meaning within the United States. The decision as heretofore rendered should be affirmed. I dissent.