United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Ingenohl v. Olsen & Co., 273 U.S. 541 (1927)

Ingenohl v. Olsen & Company

No. 174

Argued March 1, 1927

Decided March 14, 1927

273 U.S. 541

Syllabus

1. A trademark, started elsewhere, has only such validity and protection in a foreign country as the foreign law accords it. P. 273 U. S. 544.

Page 273 U. S. 542

2. Section 311(2) of the Philippine Code of Civil Procedure, which provides that a judgment "may be repelled by evidence of clear mistake of law or fact," does not justify refusal to enforce a judgment for costs rendered by the Supreme Court of Hongkong in a trademark suit upon the ground that that court mistakenly denied effect in Hongkong to a sale of the trademark with the business of the plaintiff in the Philippine Islands, made by the Alien Property Custodian to the defendant. P. 273 U. S. 544.

3. The Alien Property Custodian, under the Trading with the Enemy Act, had no power to transfer trademark rights in a foreign country contrary to the foreign law. P. 273 U. S. 544.

4. This Court has jurisdiction by certiorari to review a case from the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands in which the validity of a section of the Philippine Code of Civil Procedure and a construction of the Trading with the Enemy Act are drawn in question. P 273 U. S. 545.

47 P.I. 189 reversed.

Certiorari (269 U.S. 542) to a judgment of the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands which reversed a judgment recovered by the plaintiff, Ingenohl, in the Court of First Instance. The action was based on a judgment for costs, awarded to the plaintiff by the Supreme Court of Hongkong, in a suit to restrain the defendant, Walter E. Olsen & Company Inc., from infringing the plaintiff's trademark.