While names which are merely geographical cannot be exclusively
appropriated as trademarks, a geographical name which for a long
period has referred exclusively to a product made at the place and
not to the place itself may properly be used as a trademark, and so
held that the word "Chartreuse," as used by the Carthusian
Monks in connection with the liqueur manufactured by them at Grande
Chartreuse, France, before their removal to Spain, was a validly
registered trademark in this country.
Page 221 U. S. 581
The law of a foreign country has no extraterritorial effect to
detach a trademark validly registered in this country from the
product to which it is attached.
Nonuser of a trademark, or the use of new devices, does not
afford a basis for the penalty of loss of right thereto by
abandonment; abandonment will not be inferred in the absence of
intent, and a finding of intent must be supported by adequate
facts.
While one may use the name of the place where he manufactures an
article in order to show where it is manufactured, and may state
all the facts in regard to his succession, under the law of a
foreign country, to property of parties formerly manufacturing an
article similar in many respects, he cannot, in this country, use
the name of the place to designate the article if that name has
been validly registered as a trademark here, and so
held
that the liquidator appointed in France of the property of the
Carthusian Monks could not, in this country, use the word
"Chartreuse" to designate the liqueur manufactured by him at Grande
Chartreuse, the Carthusian Monks having validly registered that
name in the United States as a trademark of the liqueur
manufactured by them.
A validly registered trademark cannot be used by anyone other
than the owner, even with words explaining that the article to
which it is attached is not manufactured by the owner of the
trademark.
Where the Circuit Court has sustained the trademark, but the
circuit court of appeals has suggested a form of label that the
defendant might use, defendant should not be punished for contempt
for using such a form.
The facts, which involve the validity of the word "Chartreuse"
as a trademark and other questions in regard to the ownership
thereof and the sale of cordials under that name, are stated in the
opinion.
Page 221 U. S. 586
MR. JUSTICE HUGHES delivered the opinion of the Court.
Pere Baglin, Superior General of the Order of Carthusian Monks,
for himself and the other members of the order, brought this bill
in equity against the Cusenier Company, a New York corporation, to
restrain the infringement of trademarks and unfair competition.
The complainant had a decree in the circuit court, and this was
modified in certain particulars, to which we shall presently refer,
by the circuit court of appeals. The complainant then appealed to
this Court, and motion was made to dismiss the appeal, it being
urged that the decree below was not final. Complainant then
petitioned for a writ of certiorari, and this writ and a cross-writ
asked for by the respondent were granted.
The facts, so far as we deem it necessary to state them, are as
follows: for several hundred years prior to 1903, save for a
comparatively brief period following the French Revolution, the
Order of Carthusian Monks occupied the Monastery of the Grande
Chartreuse, near Voiron, in the Department of Isere, in France.
This was their
Page 221 U. S. 587
Mother House. There, by a secret process, they made the liqueur
or cordial which, at first sold locally, became upwards of fifty
years ago the subject of an extensive trade, and is known
throughout the world as "Chartreuse." The monks originally
manufactured the liqueur at the monastery itself, and later at
Fourvoirie, close by. It was marketed here and abroad in bottles of
distinctive shape to which were attached labels bearing the
inscription, "Liqueur Fabriquee a la Gde. Chartreuse," with a
facsimile of the signature of L. Garnier, a former procureur of the
order, and its insignia, a globe, cross, and seven stars, and these
symbols with "Gde. Chartreuse" underneath were also ground into the
glass. In 1876, the then procureur registered two trademarks in the
Patent Office, and these were reregistered in 1884, under the Act
of 1881. In the accompanying statement, the one was said to consist
"of the word
Chartreuse,' accompanied by a facsimile of the
signature of L. Garnier," and the other "of the word-symbol
`Chartreuse,'" and the combinations in which these were used were
described.
In the year 1903, having been refused authorization under the
French law of July 1, 1901, known as the associations act, the
congregation of the Chartreux was held to be dissolved by operation
of law, and possession was taken of their properties in France by a
"sequestrating administrator and liquidator" appointed by the
French court. Forcibly removed from their former establishment, and
taking their secret with them, the monks set up a factory at
Tarragona, in Spain, and there, according to their ancient process,
they have continued the manufacture of the liqueur, importing from
France such herbs as were needed for the purpose.
The French liquidator, Henri Lecouturier, employing a skilled
distiller and chemical assistants, undertook by experimentation to
make at Fourvoirie a liqueur either identical with or resembling as
closely as possible the
Page 221 U. S. 588
famous "Chartreuse;" and, having succeeded in this effort to his
satisfaction, he placed his product upon the market under the old
name. His agent in this county, under date of October 25, 1904,
issued a circular containing the following announcement:
"I take pleasure in informing you that I have been appointed
sole agent for the United States and Canada for the Grande
Chartreuse Liqueur. Within a few days I shall receive a shipment
and therefore will be able to execute orders. As there is a very
extensive demand for this cordial, I shall not be able to fill
large orders in full, but I trust that, within a few weeks, I will
have sufficient stock on hand to enable me to satisfy the demand
through the Cusenier Company, whom I have appointed my distributing
agents."
"Nothing has been changed in the putting up of the products of
the Grande Chartreuse, which bear the same labels as heretofore,
the only guaranty of authenticity and of origin of the Chartreuse
made at the Monastery."
The liquidator's cordial was shipped to this country, and sold
here in bottles of precisely the same description, and with the
same marks and symbols which had been used by the monks; if there
was any difference, it is frankly stated to have been
unintentional.
Meanwhile, the monks, debarred by the proceedings in France from
the use of their old marks and symbols in that country, devised a
new designation for their liqueur, in which prominence was given to
the words "Peres Chartreux." The new label bore the inscription
"Liqueur Fabriquee a Tarragone par les Peres Chartreux;" and this
was accompanied by the statement that
"this liqueur is the only one identically the same as that made
at the Monastery of the Grande Chartreuse in France, previous to
the expulsion of the monks, who have kept intact the secret of its
manufacture."
To negative the claim of abandonment, they made a small shipment
to this country
Page 221 U. S. 589
under the old labels. And both here and in other countries, the
monks have sought by legal proceedings to prevent the use of the
word "Chartreuse" as a designation of the liqueur made at
Fourvourie since their expulsion, and the use or imitation by the
liquidator or by those claiming under him of the marks which the
monks had associated with their product, and the simulating in any
way of the dress or packages in which it had been sold.
For this purpose, this suit was brought against the defendant,
who was then representing the liquidator in this country. Pending
it, the liquidator sold the property he had acquired and the
business he had been conducting in that capacity to a company known
as the "Compagnie Fermiere de la Grande Chartreuse," which has
continued the manufacture of liqueur at Fourvoirie and also its
sale in this country through the defendant as its
representative.
On final hearing, the circuit court adjudged "that the
word-symbol "Chartreuse," as applied to liqueur or cordial," and
that "the said word-symbol "Chartreuse" accompanied by the
facsimile signature of L. Garnier," as set forth in the
certificates of registry in the Patent Office,
"constitute good and valid trademarks, and in this country have
been and now are the sole and exclusive property of said
complainants, the Carthusian monks or fathers (Peres Chartreux),
and that in this country the said complainants still have the
right, and the exclusive right, to use the said marks, or any of
them, upon liqueurs or cordials manufactured by the
complainants."
It was further adjudged that the defendant had been guilty of
infringement of these trademarks and of unfair competition, and the
decree also contained a perpetual injunction.
The circuit court of appeals affirmed the decree with
modifications which affect only the paragraph containing the
injunction. This paragraph, as amended, reads as
Page 221 U. S. 590
follows (the words inserted by the court of appeals being
italicized):
"It is further adjudged, ordered, and decreed that defendant,
its associates, successors, assigns, officers, servants, clerks,
agents, and workmen, and each of them, be, and they hereby are,
perpetually enjoined from using in this country or in any
possession thereof, in connection with any liqueur or cordial not
manufactured by complainants, the trademark 'Chartreuse,' or of any
colorable imitation thereof,
unless so used as clearly to
distinguish such liqueur or cordial from the liqueur or cordial
manufactured by the complainants -- or the facsimile signature
of L. Garnier, or any colorable imitation thereof -- or any of the
trademarks above referred to, or any colorable imitation thereof,
and they and each of them are likewise perpetually enjoined from
importing or putting out, or selling or offering for sale, directly
or indirectly, within this country, any liqueur or cordial not
manufactured by complainants, in any dress or package like or
simulating in any material respects the dress or package heretofore
used by complainants, and in particular from making use of any
[bottle or] label or [package] symbol like or substantially similar
to
those appearing on 'complainants' exhibit, defendant's
liqueur,' being the bottle now on file as an exhibit in this Court,
and from in anywise attempting to make use of the good will and
reputation of complainants in putting out in this country any
liqueur or cordial not made by complainants."
The defendant contends that the circuit court was without
jurisdiction. This objection must fail, as it sufficiently appears
from the record that the controversy was between foreign subjects
and a New York corporation. And there was also an assertion by the
bill of a right under the federal statute, by virtue of the
registration of the trademarks.
Warner v. Searle & Hereth
Company, 191 U. S. 195;
Standard Paint Co. v.
Trinidad Asphalt
Page 221 U. S. 591
Company, 220 U. S. 446,
decided April 10, 1911;
Jacobs v. Beecham, decided May 15,
1911,
ante, p.
221 U. S. 263.
On the merits, the questions presented are (1) what rights, with
respect to the designations and marks involved, were enjoyed by the
Carthusian monks prior to their expulsion from the French
monastery? (2) what effect upon their rights had (a) the
liquidation proceedings in France, and (b) the conduct of the monks
in relation to the trade in the liqueur which they subsequently
made in Spain? and, in the light of the conclusions upon these
points, (3) to what remedy, if any, are the monks entitled?
It is insisted that the judgment is erroneous in determining
that "the word-symbol Chartreuse" constituted a valid trademark. It
is argued that "Chartreuse" is a regional name; that the
characteristic qualities of the liqueur were due to certain local
advantages by reason of the herbs found and cultivated within the
district described; that even as used in connection with the monks'
liqueur, it was still a description of place, and hence, that at
most, so far as this word is concerned, the question could be one
only of unfair competition.
The validity of this argument cannot be admitted upon the facts
which we deem to be established and controlling. It is undoubtedly
true that names which are merely geographical cannot be the subject
of exclusive appropriation as trademarks.
"Their nature is such that they cannot point to the origin
(personal origin) or ownership of the articles of trade to which
they may be applied. They point only at the place of production,
not to the producer, and could they be appropriated exclusively,
the appropriation would result in mischievous monopolies."
Canal Company v. Clark, 13 Wall. p.
80 U. S. 324.
See also Columbia Mill Company v. Alcorn, 150 U.
S. 460;
Elgin National Watch Company v. Illinois
Watch Company, 179 U. S. 665.
This familiar principle, however, is not applicable here. It is
not necessary for us to determine the origin of the
Page 221 U. S. 592
name of the order and its chief monastery. If it be assumed that
the monks took their name from the region in France in which they
settled in the eleventh century, it still remains true that it
became peculiarly their designation. And the word "Chartreuse," as
applied to the liqueur which for generations they made and sold,
cannot be regarded in a proper sense as a geographical name. It had
exclusive reference to the fact that it was the liqueur made by the
Carthusian monks at their monastery. So far as it embraced the
notion of place, the description was not of a district, but of the
monastery of the order -- the abode of the monks -- and the term in
its entirety pointed to production by the monks.
It cannot be supposed that if, during the occupation by the
monks of the Monastery of La Grande Chartreuse, another had
established a factory at Fourvoirie and there manufactured a
liqueur, he could have affixed to it the name "Chartreuse" or
"Grande Chartreuse" or "Gde. Chartreuse," on the ground that these
were place names, or descriptive of advantages pertaining to the
locality. It could not fail to be recognized at once that these
were the distinctive designations of the liqueur made by the monks,
and not geographical descriptions available to anyone who might
make cordial in a given section of country. The same would have
been true if the monks had voluntarily removed and continued their
manufacture elsewhere. As was forcibly said by the Lord Chief
Justice in the Court of Appeal in
Rey v. Lecouturier
[1908], 2 Ch. p. 726:
"To test this question, let us suppose that the monks had moved
their manufacture to another monastery or another building in
France, and had sold the fabric of the distillery, and left the
district of La Grande Chartreuse, but had continued to make the
liqueur in the same way; could it be contended that anyone who
bought, as old bricks and mortar, the distillery at Fourvoirie,
could immediately call any liqueur made there by the name of
Page 221 U. S. 593
Chartreuse, and put it on the English market under that name? It
is to me quite unarguable."
The claim of the monks to an exclusive right in this designation
as applied to the liqueur has been frequently the subject of
litigation, and has repeatedly been sustained. In 1872, La Court de
Cassation in
Le Pere Louis Garnier v. Paul Garnier, 17
Annales, p. 259, held that
"the word 'Chartreuse,' applied as a denomination to the liqueur
manufactured by the religious community of which Pere Garnier is
the representative, is but an abbreviation and the equivalent of a
designation more complete; for it at once indicates
the name of
the fabricants (the Chartreux),
the name or commercial
firm of manufacture, which is no other than the community of
these same Chartreux, and, finally,
the place of
manufacture -- that is to say, the monastery of La Grande
Chartreuse."
It was concluded that the designation was the exclusive property
of the monks. Mr. Browne, after quoting the above passage, adds:
"That single word" (Chartreuse) "contains a long history of strife.
It has repeatedly been held to be a perfect trademark, for the
reasons just cited." Browne, Trade-Marks, ยงยง 582, 407-410.
See
also 17 Annales, 241, 249;
Rey v. Lecouturier, supra,
p. 726;
Grezier v. Girard, and others, United States
Circuit Court, Southern District of New York, 1876, not reported;
A. Bauer v. Order of Carthusian Monks, 120 F. 48.
We find no error therefore in this determination of the
judgment. The registered trademarks were valid. In the statements
for registration, the symbols actually used in combination were set
forth. Take, for example, the mark in the glass of the bottle,
consisting of "Gde. Chartreuse" under the globe, cross, and seven
stars. This undoubtedly is a valid mark. And the same is true of
the other marks, shown on the labels attached to the bottles, which
included the ecclesiastical symbols and the facsimile of the
signature of L. Garnier. It follows that up to the time
Page 221 U. S. 594
of their expulsion from the monastery, the monks were entitled
to protection against the infringement of these marks, which were
their exclusive property, as well as against unfair
competition.
The next inquiry is with respect to the effect of the
liquidation proceedings in France. Upon the application of the
Procureur of the Republic, the French court proceeded to the
judicial liquidation of the properties in France held by the
nonauthorized congregation of the Chartreux, and it was of these
properties that a liquidator was appointed. It does not appear that
the court assumed jurisdiction of the trademarks registered on
behalf of the monks in other countries. On the contrary, it appears
to have been held that the question of the ownership of such
trademarks was not involved in its determination. After a
successful contest of the liquidator with the Abbe Rey, in which a
judgment was pronounced to the effect that the latter was an
interposed person or passive trustee under a deed of transfer found
to be simulated, and that the properties claimed by him personally
were in fact those of the congregation, and subject to the
liquidation, the liquidator sought, by way of interpretation of
this judgment, to obtain a declaration that the assets of the
liquidation comprised the trademark registered in other countries.
On refusing the application (March 27, 1906), the Court of Appeals
of Grenoble used the following language, showing that the question
had not been determined in the previous decision, and also
directing attention to the character of the law under which the
liquidation was had as "a law of exception and police:"
"The claim of the receiver to the property of the trademarks
registered in the foreign countries raises the question whether the
law of July first, 1901, which is a law of exception and police,
controls or not, beyond the territory of the Republic, the
properties of the dissolved congregations, and whether the
trademarks
Page 221 U. S. 595
registered in foreign lands are an accessory of the commercial
holding of Fourvoirie, thus coming under this title into the
liquidation, or whether they constitute a distinct and independent
property from this commercial holding."
"The question has not been debated between the parties, and the
court would not have failed, if it had been submitted to it, to
treat upon it in the counts of its decision, in order to solve it
in its disposition."
"The silence in this respect, exclusive of any debate on this
point, does not allow of admitting, as being implicitly contained
in the decree, in an ambiguous or equivocal form, the decision of
which Lecouturier claims the benefit, and as the interpretation
which he solicits from the court would have as effect to extend
beyond what was its sole object, the matter judged by the decree of
July nineteenth last."
"Such an application must be rejected as not receivable, and it
is left to Lecouturier to have recourse to such means as may be
deemed proper."
Hence, defendant's contention is not that the French judgments,
under which its principal claims,
"expressly and directly settled the status of the marks abroad,
but that the said judgments were effective to vest in the defendant
[liquidator] the business and good will inseparably connected both
in France and in this country with the place and made of
fabrication, and therefore gave him the right, in virtue of the
principles of our law, to use the trademark connected
therewith."
Now what was the case with respect to the business to which the
trademarks in this county related? That business consisted of the
manufacture by the monks, according to their secret process, of a
liqueur of which the marks and symbols were the trade designation.
They took their secret with them to Spain and continued the
manufacture of the liqueur. The monks' secret was not the subject
of seizure by the liquidator, and did not pass to him. It is
not
Page 221 U. S. 596
pretended that he or his vendee have manufactured the liqueur at
Fourvoirie under a formula or recipe derived from the monks, but it
is maintained that a formula believed to be essentially similar has
been arrived at by experimentation, in accordance with which the
liquidator and the French Company have been making their liqueur.
We are not concerned with their authority under the French law to
conduct this business, but it is not the business to which the
trademarks in this country relate. That business is being conducted
according to the ancient process by the monks themselves. The
French law cannot be conceived to have any extraterritorial effect
to detach the trademarks in this country from the product of the
monks, which they are still manufacturing.
The matter was put thus by Lord MacNaghten in the House of
Lords, in
Lecouturier v. Rey [1910], A.C. p. 265:
"To me it seems perfectly plain that it must be beyond the power
of any foreign court or any foreign legislature to prevent the
monks from availing themselves in England of the benefit of the
reputation which the liqueurs of their manufacture have acquired
here, or to extend or communicate the benefit of that reputation to
any rival or competitor in the English market. But it is certainly
satisfactory to learn from the evidence of experts in French law
that the law of Associations is a penal law -- a law of police and
order -- and is not considered to have any extraterritorial effect.
It is also satisfactory to find that these legal experts confirm
the conclusion which any lawyer would draw from a perusal of the
French judgments in evidence in this case, that the sale by the
liquidator of the property bought by the appellant company has not
carried with it the English trademarks, or established the claim of
the appellant company to represent their manufacture as the
manufacture of the monks of La Grande Chartreuse, which most
certainly it is not. "
Page 221 U. S. 597
And Lord Justice Buckley said in the Court of Appeal,
Rey v.
Lecouturier [1908], 2 Ch. 715, p. 733:
"Of course, in this country, a trademark can only be enjoyed in
connection with a business; but I think that the monks are carrying
on a business in connection with which they can enjoy any
trademarks to which they may be entitled, and the labels which were
put upon the register, and in respect of which the defendant
Lecouturier has had his own name placed upon the register. Are
those trademarks the property of the plaintiffs? In my opinion,
they clearly are."
If through his experiments the liquidator had not succeeded in
making a liqueur which resembled that of the monks, he would have
had no business to transact so far as the liqueur was concerned,
and the transfer by operation of law would not have availed to give
him one. But the property in the trademarks in this country did not
depend upon the success of the endeavors of the liquidator's
experts. The monks were enabled to continue their business because
they still had the process, and continuing it they enjoyed all the
rights pertaining to it, save to the extent to which, by force of
the local law, they were deprived of that enjoyment in France.
Failing to establish that the monks were divested of their
exclusive rights in this country by the legal proceedings in
France, it is insisted that these have been lost by abandonment.
This defense is based both upon nonuser of the old marks and
labels, and upon the efforts made by the monks, since their
expulsion from France, to associate their liqueur with a new
designation, as the "Liqueur des Peres Chartreux" or "Liqueur
Fabriquee a Tarragone par les Peres Chartreux."
But the loss of the right of property in trademarks upon the
ground of abandonment is not to be viewed as a penalty either for
nonuser or for the creation and use of new devices. There must be
found an
intent to abandon, or the
Page 221 U. S. 598
property is not lost, and while, of course, as in other cases,
intent may be inferred when the facts are shown, yet the facts must
be adequate to support the finding.
"To establish the defense of abandonment, it is necessary to
show not only acts indicating a practical abandonment, but an
actual intent to abandon. Acts which, unexplained, would be
sufficient to establish an abandonment may be answered by showing
that there never was an intention to give up and relinquish the
right claimed."
Saxlehner v. Eisner & Mendelson Company, 179 U.S.
p.
179 U. S. 31.
And this Court, in referring in
Singer Mfg. Co. v. June Mfg.
Co., 163 U.S. p.
163 U. S. 186,
to the loss of the right of property in a name, "like the right to
an arbitrary mark," by dedication or abandonment, quoted with
approval the definition of De Maragy, in his International
Dictionary of Industrial Property, as follows:
"Abandonment in industrial property is an act by which the
public domain originally enters or reenters into the possession of
the thing (commercial name, mark, or sign) by the will of the
legitimate owner. The essential condition to constitute abandonment
is that the one having a right should consent to the dispossession.
Outside of this, there can be no dedication of the right, because
there cannot be abandonment in the juridical sense of the
word."
What basis is there in this case for a finding of intent to
abandon the old marks? It is to be remembered that they were of a
personal character, involving the adaptation of the name and the
use of the ecclesiastical symbols of the order. It is pointed out
that, to show that there was no intention to abandon, a shipment
was made to this country from Tarragona, of the monks' liqueur,
under the old marks. But it is not necessary to rest on that. The
attitude of the monks in their efforts here and in other countries
to prevent the use of the old marks shows clearly that there has
been no intention to abandon.
Page 221 U. S. 599
It was natural enough that the monks, unable to use their former
marks in France, should desire to bring into use a designation
which could be available there as well as in other countries. But
this is far from indicating the slightest disposition to surrender
to the world the right to denominate liqueurs by the ancient name
and symbols taken from their own order. As soon as the liquidator,
as the result of his experiments, announced that he was prepared to
put upon the market "the Grande Chartreuse Liqueur" under the same
labels as theretofore -- "the only guaranty of authenticity and of
origin of the Chartreuse made at the monastery" -- the monks
promptly asserted their rights.
The liquidator was not moved to the use of the marks in question
by any consideration of abandonment on the part of the monks, but
by virtue of their exclusion from their former abode and of the
rights of succession which he claimed under the French law. The
main issue between the parties has been one of title, "each
claiming a right to the disputed marks to the exclusion of the
other." The respective parties, and those representing them, have
been in constant litigation in France and elsewhere since the
liquidator was appointed, and reviewing the facts in this case, we
find no possible ground upon which it can be said that the monks
have abandoned the right they possessed.
We come, then, to the question of remedy.
In view of the acts of the defendant with respect to the marks,
labels, and bottles shown to have been used in connection with the
liqueur made at Fourvoirie after the removal of the monks, the
decree adjudging it guilty of infringement and unfair competition
was plainly right. We are also of the opinion that the provisions
of the injunction against infringement and simulation set forth in
the decree of the circuit court were proper.
In dealing, however, with the question of unfair trade, it is to
be remembered that the liquidator, and the French
Page 221 U. S. 600
company to whom he sold, lawfully conducted the manufacturing
business at Fourvoirie, and of course were entitled respectively to
sell their product here. They were entitled to state that they made
it, and the place and circumstances of its manufacture. In short,
they were not debarred from making a statement of the facts,
including the appointment of the liquidator and the French
company's succession by virtue of his sale, provided it were made
fairly, and were not couched in language, or arranged in a manner,
which would be misleading, and would show an endeavor to trade upon
the repute of the monks' cordial. It is also to be noted that the
words "Grande Chartreuse" form a part of the name of the French
company which it, and the defendants, as its representative, had a
right to use in lawful trade. But neither it nor the defendant was
entitled to use the word "Chartreuse" as the name or designation of
the liqueur it manufactured, and in any other use of that word, or
in any reference to the monks, in its statement of the facts, it
was bound by suitable and definite specification to make clear the
distinction between its product and the liqueur made by the
monks.
These considerations undoubtedly led the court below to modify
the decree by inserting the words, "unless so used as clearly to
distinguish such liqueur or cordial from the liqueur or cordial
manufactured by the complainants." But this insertion was made in
connection with that portion of the injunction which related to the
trademark, and this, we think, was error. It amounted, by reason of
the juxtaposition with what preceded, to a permission to the
defendant to use the trademark "Chartreuse," or that word as the
name or description of its liqueur, provided it were distinguished
from the liqueur of the monks. This was inconsistent with the
decree as to the ownership of the trademark.
The modification, in this form, should therefore be
Page 221 U. S. 601
struck out; but, more completely to adapt the remedy to the
conditions disclosed, there should be inserted in the fourth
paragraph of the decree -- in that portion which contains the
injunction against unfair trade -- a provision restraining the use
of the word "Chartreuse" in connection with the sales of liqueur
not made by the monks, as the name of or as descriptive of the
liqueur, or without clearly distinguishing it from the monks'
product.
The decree will be amended accordingly, as shown in the margin.
*
After the decision by the court below, application was made by
the complainants for an injunction against the use by the
defendant, in connection with its liqueur, of the words "Peres
Chartreux." The injunction was not granted, but, the parties having
been heard, the court adjudged
Page 221 U. S. 602
the defendant in contempt and imposed a fine. The order was
reversed by the circuit court of appeals, and the complainants have
applied for a writ of certiorari, which is granted.
In the opinion of the circuit court of appeals upon the appeal
from the decree on the main issue, there were set forth two forms
of labels which, it was suggested, might properly be used by the
defendant, printed in any language. In the contempt proceeding, it
was shown that the defendant followed closely one of these forms,
but used in place of the words "Carthusian Monks," as these there
appeared, the description "Peres Chartreux."
In view of the language of its opinion, and the permission it
implied, it is clear that the court rightly held that the defendant
should not be fined for contempt. But, in saying this, we do not
wish to be understood as approving the suggested forms of labels,
for they seem to us objectionable in view of the arrangement of the
inscription and the special prominence given to the words "Grande
Chartreuse." Nor does the making of a fair and adequate statement
as to the liqueur of the defendant, its origin and manufacture,
require the use of the words "Peres Chartreux," and we are unable
to escape the conclusion that such use, in the manner shown, was to
serve the purpose of simulation, and to draw to the defendant's
liqueur the reputation of that of the monks, contrary to the
provisions of the decree.
For the reasons we have stated, the order of the court below in
the contempt proceeding is affirmed, but without prejudice to any
future application.
The decree is reversed, and the cause is remanded with
directions to enter a decree in favor of the complainants, amending
the decree entered in the Circuit Court in accordance with this
opinion, and the order in the contempt proceeding is affirmed
without prejudice to any future application.
*
"4. It is further adjudged, ordered, and decreed that defendant,
its associates, successors, assigns, officers, servants clerks,
agents, and workmen, and each of them, be, and they hereby are,
perpetually enjoined from using in this country or in any
possession thereof, in connection with any liqueur or cordial not
manufactured by complainants, the trademark 'Chartreuse' or any
colorable imitation thereof, or the facsimile signature of L.
Garnier, or any colorable imitation thereof, or any of the
trademarks above referred to, or any colorable imitation thereof,
and they and each of them are likewise perpetually enjoined from
importing or putting out, or selling or offering for sale, directly
or indirectly, within this country or in any possession thereof,
any liqueur or cordial not manufactured by complainants in any
dress or package like or simulating in any material respects the
dress or package heretofore used by complainants, and in particular
from making use of any label or symbol like or substantially
similar to those appearing on 'complainants' exhibit defendant's
liqueur,' being the bottle now on file as an exhibit in this Court,
and from using the word 'Chartreuse' in connection with the
importing, putting out, or sale of such liqueur or cordial, as the
name of or as descriptive of such liqueur or cordial, or without
clearly distinguishing such liqueur or cordial from the liqueur or
cordial manufactured by the complainants, and from in any wise
attempting to make use of the good will and reputation of
complainants in putting out in this country any liqueur or cordial
not made by complainants."