Ford Motor Co. v. Benjamin Boone, Inc.

The plaintiff company is the manufacturer of the Ford automobile. It maintains what it calls an agency for the sale of its cars and extras, and for repair work, at Portland, Or. ' The defendants are engaged in a general automobile business in that city, but have never been authorized by the plaintiff, either as agents or otherwise, to sell its products. The suit is brought to restrain them from engaging in what the plaintiff claims to be unfair practices, by which its rights are violated and the public is deceived. Upon the defendants’ motion the bill was dismissed in the lower court, and the plaintiff appeals.

Sketching the complaint a little more fully, it shows that for about 12 years last past the plaintiff has been engaged in the manufacture and sale of automobiles invented by it, and commonly known as the “Ford car,” “Ford automobile,” or “Ford,” the same being fully protected by patents; that it has spent large sums of money advertising .the “Ford,” and by reason of its inherent merit and as a result of such advertising the “Ford” has come into great public favor; that-in advertising plaintiff has very generally used two trade-marks duly regr istered and fully protected by…