Court Opinion

ID: 9447300
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 22:31:14.926215+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:58.749358
License: Public Domain

RICH, Judge
(concurring).
I agree that the concurrent use of the identical mark on women’s shoes and brassieres would be likely to confuse purchasers of the goods as to their commercial sponsorship, which is what I take to be the meaning of the expression “source.” Under contemporary marketing practices, the manufacturer, in many cases, does not occupy his traditional role as the “source” because he has become a mere contractor for a merchandising unit which is the entity standing behind the merchandise. It, therefore, seems of little importance to me, if it be true, that shoes and brassieres are not made by the same manufacturers. They might very well be marketed by the same organization as its own wares. As stated in Vandenburgh, Trademark Law and Procedure (1959), § 1.23 at page 28,
“A literal reading of the words ‘indication of origin’ can lead to a misunderstanding. When one says that a trademark must indicate origin of the goods to which it is applied, it is not intended to infer that a trademark can only be used by a manufacturer of the goods. It is a perfectly proper trademark although it indicates origin in a wholesaler, distributor or retailer. The origin to which reference is made is the party that introduces the goods on which the mark is used into commerce with the trademark on them and who primarily stands to gain or lose by the acceptable qualities of the goods. It is not even necessary that the public or purchasers know who is the manufacturer of the goods or who the party is in whom the ‘origin’ is indicated.
“It is only infrequently that the public knows who the producer is; and it is more infrequently that it cares.”