B. W. Photo Utilities, Doing Business as B. W. Molded Plastics v. Republic Molding Corporation

On this appeal the principal question is whether the District Court committed reversible error in granting a preliminary injunction as requested by appellee, plaintiff below, pending trial on the merits of this case involving alleged unfair trade practice by appellant, defendant below, in the production and sale of plastic vegetable bins.

Appellant is a California corporation, appellee is an Illinois corporation, and more than $10,000 exclusive of interest and costs is involved. The District Court ( 28 U.S.C. §§ 1332 , 1391) had and this Court ( 28 U.S.C. § 1292 (1)) has jurisdiction.

Appellant charges that the District Court abused its discretion in granting the preliminary injunction, erred in entering the findings of fact and conclusions of law supporting the injunctive order, and in holding, contrary to federal law, that a design like that of appellee’s bins has acquired or can acquire a secondary meaning or trade-mark significance. Many more errors are assigned by appellant against the District Court’s rulings, but they are all subsidiary to or covered by the foregoing charges of error.

Appellee claims that in the summer of 1958, the appellee began as the first one to make…