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101 Mass. 82

Emerson v. Badger

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided January 15, 1869

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1869-01-15

Bill in equity to restrain the use on the labels of razor straps sold by the defendant of the words “ Genuine Emerson’s Elastic Razor Strap,” or of the name of the plaintiff, or of the plaintiff’s place of business.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1869-01-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 1935

1 federal appellate · 8 state decisions

4018691870188018901900191019201930decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Gray, J.

¶1The original inventor of the razor straps mentioned in the bill, and the owner and designer of the label put upon them by way of trade mark, was Charles Emerson, Senior, who employed and instructed in his business five of his nephews, of whom Benjamin Badger, the father of this defendant, was the eldest, and the plaintiff, was the third. Said Benjamin, in his uncle’s lifetime, left his employment, and continued, with his consent and permission,' but on his own account, to manufacture and sell such straps and to use the same label thereon, and was succeeded in his business by his son, the defendant. The uncle died without issue, his nephews were among his heirs at law, and his business and trade mark were not disposed of by himself by will or otherwise, nor by his administrator after his decease. The plaintiff, though bearing the same name, is not the original Charles Emerson, and has no greater right than the defendant to hold himself out as such, or to use the label of his uncle. The label used by the defendant does not represent his razor straps to be made by the plaintiff or by any person of the name of Charles Emerson, but states with exact truth the rela*87tian of the defendant to the original inventor and owner. The plaintiff therefore fails to prove either any infringement of his own rights or any wrongful act of the defendant.

¶2Bill dismissed, with costs.

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