Phillips v. The Governor & Co.’s Empirical Analysis
79 F.2d 971 · 1935
Citation profile
10 federal appellate · 5 district · 2 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 23 later decisions — most recently February 1979
10 federal appellate · 5 district · 2 state decisions
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.
Relationships
Relies on Menendez v. Holt · Elgin National Watch Company v. Illinois Watch Case Company W · Freund v. United States · Standard Oil Co. of New Mexico, Inc. v. Standard Oil Co. of California · Del Monte Special Food Co. v. California Packing Corp.
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 23 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Defendant’s second contention is that no injunction should issue, because ‘Hudson’s Bay’ is a mere descriptive term and therefore plaintiff is not entitled to the exclusive use thereof. He states that there are cities named ‘Hudson’ and ‘Hudson Falls’; that there is a ‘Hudson’ river and a ‘Hudson’ motor car, and that ‘Hudson’ in the fur industry has been used to denote a particular fur, such as ‘Hudson Seal,’ ‘Hudson Bay Sable,’ and ‘Hudson Bay Seal’. In 63 C.J. 424, § 115, it is said: ‘Descriptive terms and generic names are publici juris and not capable of exclusive appropriation by any one, but may be used by all the world in an honestly descriptive and non deceptive manner. * * * Nevertheless, even descriptive and generic names may not be used in such a manner as to pass off the goods or business of one man as and for that of another. Where such words or names, by long use, have become identified in the minds of the public with the goods or business of a particular trader, it is unfair competition for a subsequent trader to use them in connection with similar goods or business in such a manner as to deceive the public and pass off his goods or business for that of his rival’ * *”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““* * * defendant contends that there is no ‘competition’ between them, and therefore there can be no ‘unfair competition.’ This court, however, has carefully considered the question in Del Monte Special Food Co. v. California Packing Corporation, 9 Cir., 34 F.2d 774 , and has held that the two products need not be competitive * * *."”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““it is no objection to the issuance of an injunction that its name is geographical.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.