All the packings, covers,
labels, trademarks, and names by which the manufacturer tries to
stimulate the attention, the imagination, and the suggestibility of
the customer may easily draw a large part of their psychological
effectiveness from without, as soon as they imitate the appearance of
articles which are well introduced and favored in the market. If the
public is familiar with and favorably inclined toward an article on
account of its inner values or on account of its being much
advertised, a similar name or a similar packing may offer efficient
help to a rival article. The law of course protects the label and the
deceiving imitation can be prosecuted. But no law can determine by
general conceptions the exact point at which the similarity becomes
legally unallowable. This creates a situation which has given rise to
endless difficulties in practical life.
If everything were forbidden which by its similarity to an accredited
article might lead to a possible confusion in the mind of the quite
careless and inattentive customer, any article once in the market
would have a monopoly in its line. As soon as a typewriter or an
automobile or a pencil or a mineral water existed, no second kind
could have access to the market, as with a high degree of carelessness
one economic rival may be taken for another, even if the new
typewriter or the new pencil has a new form and color and name.
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