Woodward v. Lazar

Citations

• 21 Cal. 448

Syllabus

<p>The name established for a hotel is a trade mark, in which the proprietor has a valuable interest, which a Court of Equity will protect against infringement.</p> <p>A tenant, by giving a particular name to a building, as a sign of the hotel business, for which he uses it, does not thereby make the name a fixture of the building, and the property of the landlord upon the expiration of the lease.</p> <p>W. leased a lot of land, on which he erected a building, in San Francisco, and used it as a hotel, to which lie gave the name of “What Cheer House.” Before the lease expired, he purchased an adjoining lot, upon which he erected a larger building, and for a time occupied both buildings as the “ What Cheer House,” the principal sign being removed to the one last built. He soon after surrendered the leased lot, with the building which was on it, and continued the business, under the same name, entirely in the building which he had erected on the lot he had purchased. Two months afterwards, the defendants, having purchased the first mentioned lot and building, opened there a hotel, under the name of “ The Original What Cheer House ”—the word “ original ” being painted on the sign in small letters, and in a manner calculated to deceive the public into the supposition that it was the same name. In an action by W. against defendants, to restrain them from using the name of “What Cheer House” for their hotel: Held, that plaintiff was entitled to the relief sought, and that defendants should be enjoined from the use of the name.</p>