White v. Trowbridge

Citations

• 216 Pa. 11
• 64 A. 862
• 1906 Pa. LEXIS 554

Syllabus

<p>Partnership — Good will — Transfer of interest — Restraint of trade.</p> <p>The mere transfer by one partner of his interest in the good will of the business to his copartners, does not preclude him from entering into a similar business in the same town, and prosecuting it in competition with the old firm of which he had been a member. The contract should expressly state that the retiring partner should not enter into the same business, if that is the intention of the parties.</p> <p>An agreement to retire from business and not to resume it again is in restraint of trade, and cannot rest upon mere inference.</p> <p>Good will is the favor which the management of a business has won from the public, and the probability that old customers will continue their patronage.</p> <p>Trade-mark — Name—Partnership—Labels.</p> <p>A retiring partner in the absence of an agreement to the contrary is not deprived of the right to use his own name in connection with the conduct of his business simply from the fact that his surname is a. portion of the trade-mark used by the copartnership of which he was formerly a member, and whose business has been continued by the other partners.</p> <p>In a trade-mark case a decree will not be entered in favor of the plaintiff where it appears that the trade-mark or labels used by the defendant are not so similar to those of plaintiff in appearance, or in the sound and connection of the words, as are likely to cause a person of ordinary intelligence using ordinary caution, in making purchases, to be misled.</p>