Church

DECISION

Plaintiff, a German corporation, is the manufacturer of the Volkswagen line of automobiles; defendant operates an automobile repair shop in Southern California, as a sole proprietor, specializing in work on Volkswagen and Porsche cars. Plaintiff claims that defendant is guilty of infringing its trademarks and of unfair competition.

The jurisdictional allegations are based primarily on the “Lanham” Trademark Act of 1946, 15 U.S.C. § 1051 and following. The Lanham Act was intended to regulate all of that “commerce” that is within the control of Congress: 15 U.S.C. § 1127 , last sentence. .It provides a federal cause of action for infringement of registered trademarks, and for unfair competition in the use of registered trademarks: 15 U.S.C. §§ 1114-1121 , 1126(h). It provides similar protection to trade names or commercial names, whether or not registered, and whether or not they form part of trademarks: 15 U.S.C. § 1126 (g).

The District Courts have original jurisdiction of any civil action arising under any act of Congress relating to patents, copyrights, and trademarks: 28 U.S.C. § 1338 (a). They also have original jurisdiction of any civil action asserting a claim of…