Court Opinion

ID: 9461624
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:19:41.604892+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:10.232870
License: Public Domain

ELY, Circuit Judge
(concurring):
I agree that the judgment of the District Court must be affirmed. Its opinion is carefully reasoned, but I wish to add a few words of my own.
The dissenting opinion of my Brother Merrill is entirely correct in noting that a term that is generic (the name of a product or service itself) cannot function as a trademark to indicate origin. Thus, for example, while “Dial” or “Ivory” or “Lifebuoy” can function as trademarks, the word “soap” cannot. The test is “what does the public think the word connotes — the generic name of the product or a mark indicating merely one source of that product?” 1 J. McCarthy, Trademarks and Unfair Competition 407 (1973) (footnote omitted). From this premise my dissenting Brother reasons that because the term “chamber of commerce” is listed in Webster’s Dictionary (defined as a group of businessmen united to promote the commercial and industrial interests of a community, state or nation), the term “Junior Chamber of Commerce” is a generic term used in a common descriptive sense. Even if a secondary meaning attaches to a generic term, argues the dissent, it is still not protectible.
The appellant’s position in the District Court was that the term “Junior Chamber of Commerce” was “descriptive” and “generic.” (354 F.Supp. at 74.) However, the District Court found that “as applied to these civic improvement services, the designations ‘Junior Chamber of Commerce,’ ‘Junior Chamber,’ ‘Jaycees,’ and ‘J.C.’s’ indicate to the public that the civic services associated with these designations emanate from either National, its component state organizations including State, its affiliated local chapters, or individual members acting on behalf of one of the affiliate organizations.” 354 F.Supp. at 76.)1
To me it seems clear that the term “Junior Chamber of Commerce” does refer to the specific source of a “product” (the National/Jaycees), and is not commonly understood as merely a generic *1227term describing any group of young men pursuing civic betterment.
In conclusion, I note that if the dissenting opinion were the law, then any new group in San Francisco could adopt the “Junior Chamber of Commerce” appellation, provided the additional users added some “distinguishing” qualification to “avoid confusion.” (E. g., it can be imagined that new groups calling themselves such names as the “Chicano Junior Chamber of Commerce,” the “White-American Junior Chamber of Commerce,” and the “Marxist Junior Chamber of Commerce” could all spring up.) To allow any and every such new organization to so misappropriate the goodwill and prestige established over the years by the National organization would, I submit, be manifestly wrong.

. As the District Court correctly noted, “ . the mere existence of a disputed fact is not sufficient to defeat a motion for summary judgment; there must be a genuine issue for trial.” 354 F.Supp. at 69. After a careful review of the evidence, the district judge found that “ . . . all of the facts relevant to the motions for summary judgment are now before the Court and are fully developed with the legal issues squarely presented. Under such circumstances the trial of the case would develop no further facts which would in any way alter this Court’s decision.” 354 F.Supp. at 69.