Hecht Co. v. Rosenberg

Boyd, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The suit is one in equity seeking an injunction against alleged unfair competition in the use of a trade name and device; and the complainant appeals from a dismissal of its bill of complaint. The Hecht Company, formerly a partnership', and since 1918 a corporation, has for over thirty years maintained in Baltimore City a store for the sale of wearing apparel, and to a lesser extent, upon occasion, other articles, in a large establishment which began at the corner of Baltimore and Charles Streets, and has since been extended until it occupies the whole Charles Street face of the block between Baltimore and Fayette Streets', with fronts on both of the latter streets; and its building is in part nine stories in height, and in part seven. The value of its building and equipment is estimated at $1,750,000.

It is one of the most conspicuous and widely known retail stores in Baltimore, and naturally has the ¹¹⁸ custom of much of the population in what may be called the Baltimore metropolitan area, or area of retail trade with the city. During the whole period of its existence it has used, as the name of the store, “The Hub”; and has displayed this name on signs and in its advertising, and in connection with the name has displayed a picture of a hub of a wheel in a horizontal position between the words of the name. And, in the territory through which it extends its trade, it is 'known as “The Hub.” Its business in the counties, of the state extends to Westminster and elsewhere, as well as in neighboring states to some extent. In Westminster, which is thirty miles from Baltimore, and has a population of about 4,400, it had at the time of suit 500 customers represented in charge accounts on its books, and in the preceding year had made. 300 deliveries in the town and in the vicinity.

The number of cash purchasers and others not represented on the books is not known. It spent large sums, of money advertising under the name and sign of “The Hub” in Baltimore newspapers which circulate in the Westminster neighborhood. The name and sign are not registered trade-marks of the store, but have been used altogether as the name and sign of the store; the name of the Hecht Company, or that of its predecessor partnership., not being used publicly at all. The defendants, in March of the year 1932, bought a lease of a small store of one room on Main Street in Westminster, for sale of clothing and shoes, and also, adopted the name and sign of a hub.

A large vertical sign held out from the second story, left by the previous tenant, bears the word “Shoes,” in large letters, and has now had painted on a smaller scale, at the top and the bottom, the name and picture of a hub, the pictorial hub being indistinguishable in design from that used by th© complainant; and valances hanging inside the two show windows bear the words, “The Hub.” The store has been advertised in Westminster newspapers only, in all but one instance as “The Hub of Hood Values”; that one instance having been due to a painter’s error. Checks of the firm have borne the name and device on the maa”gins. The range of the defendants’ custom has been comparatively ¹¹⁹ small and local, confined t-o- Westminster and a, few surrounding miles. It is, in short, a small country town