From Trademark & Copyright Law:
Washington became the 42nd state in 1889, the same year the Great Seattle Fire destroyed much of the city. A combination of new railroad lines and post-fire construction led to a boom in population and commercial activity. On July 17, 1897, this already-promising economic climate went into hyper-drive when the S.S. Portland arrived from Alaska, heralding the beginning of the Klondike gold rush. The trademark disputes that arose from this economic activity started working their way into the published opinions of the Ninth Circuit and the newly christened Washington Supreme Court in the first decades of the twentieth century.
We took a look at the first ten trademark disputes involving the city of Seattle (which date from the turn of the century up to the start of World War I). To our delight, we found them riddled with connections to celebrities, shootouts, world politics and the multicultural fabric of migration in the American west. So, if you need something to do in Seattle, why not review our ten part Seattle Trademark History series.
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Restaurateur Chauncey Wright was a Seattle legend in his own time. He had moved to Seattle from Los Angeles as a boy in the 1880’s, headed up to the Klondike for the gold rush, where he sold coffee and sandwiches to prospectors, and then returned to Seattle in 1900 to open a series of restaurants.
It was once said that Wright never turned a hungry man away. In 1912, a reporter tested that story by walking into his bustling restaurant at 110 Occidental Ave. (now a parking lot right next to the Pioneer Square Pizza Professionals) and announcing: “Mr. Wright . . . I am hungry, and I have no money.” Wright, a big jovial man in shirt sleeves, snapped his fingers and ordered a waiter to get the reporter whatever he wanted. When the reporter later revealed himself, he questioned the practicality of Wright’s charitable attitude. “You can’t afford to feed all the down-and-outs,” the reporter opined. Wright laughed, gestured around him at a restaurant packed with customers, and responded: “Can’t I?”
But at least one person didn’t think Chauncey Wright was such a great guy: his former business partner, Charles Gearheart. In 1909, the popular Chauncey Wright Café was located at 164 Washington Street (now the Fuel sports bar). The establishment was owned by the Wright Restaurant Company” of which Wright and Gearheart each owned 50%. But Wright had big plans to expand. In 1910, he sold his half of the Wright Restaurant Company to Gearhart and opened up a new restaurant (the one at 110 Occidental Avenue). The new restaurant was a modernist marvel: open twenty-four hours; “lightning” fast service, refrigeration units and breakfast all day. The sign on the new restaurant read: “Chauncey Wright, President, Seattle Restaurant Company.” The words “Chauncey Wright” were in great big text, and the rest was printed in smaller font underneath.
Gearheart sued for unfair competition, claiming that he owned the rights to the CHAUNCEY WRIGHT trade name and that customers were being confused into thinking that the Washington Street restaurant had moved to Occidental Avenue. Wright’s motion to dismiss was allowed, but the Washington Supreme Court reversed in Wright Restaurant Co. v. Seattle Restaurant Co., 67 Wash. 690 (Wash. March 28, 1912). The Court held that the trade name CHAUNCEY WRIGHT was an asset of the Wright Restaurant Company, not Wright personally, unless there had been some specific contractual arrangement otherwise, because:
A man may not so use any name, not even his own name, as unfairly to compete with another person or corporation by confusing in the public mind his business with that of the competitor.
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But Wright had the last laugh. On remand, he won the trial. He testified that the transfer of shares to Gearheart had been made with the express provision that Gearheart was to stop using the CHAUNCEY WRIGHT trade name. The Court believed him, and held that it was Gearhart who had to change his sign.
Link to the rest at Trademark & Copyright Law