Edwin K. Williams & Co., Inc. v. Edwin K. Williams & Co.-E.

MEMORANDUM

Beginning about 1935 Edwin K. Williams engaged in the business of designing and providing bookkeeping and business management systems for oil companies and record-keeping books for service station dealers, and of furnishing counseling services to aid them in inventory control, record keeping and the orderly operation of their business. His business was operated under the name of Edwin K. Williams and Co. and he has used various other designations, trademarks and trade names including “Profit Guide,” “Quick Sales Recorder,” “Profit Analyzer” and “Serv-A-Station Inc.”

Fred G. Harris joined plaintiff’s staff in 1946 and remained about three years, working generally out of the Los Angeles office. After a stint in the Navy, Harris rejoined Williams in 1952. Just prior to this reunion, Williams had barnstormed the East for business and had received a few accounts, but had made no real progress in developing that territory. In 1952 Williams entered into an agreement which gave Harris the right to “sell, market and promote all bookkeeping systems, forms, books and methods” under the names used by plaintiff, in the states East of the Mississippi River (with stated exceptions).…