Hugo Black

“ Both Compco and Day-Brite are manufacturers of fluorescent lighting fixtures of a kind widely used in offices and stores. Day-Brite in 1955 secured from the Patent Office a design patent on a reflector having cross-ribs claimed to give both strength and attractiveness to the fixture. Day-Brite also sought, but was refused, a mechanical patent on the same device. After Day-Brite had begun selling its fixture, Compco's predecessor [1] began making and selling fixtures very similar to Day-Brite's. ”

“ The court found that the overall appearance of Compco's fixture was 'the same, to the eye of the ordinary observer, as the overall appearance' of Day-Brite's reflector, which embodied the design of the invalidated patent; that the appearance of Day-Brite's design had 'the capacity to identify (Day-Brite) in the trade and does in fact so identify (it) to the trade' ”

“ A design which identifies its maker to the trade, the Court of Appeals held, is a 'protectable' right under Illinois law, even though the design is unpatentable. [3] We granted certiorari. 374 U.S. 825, 83 S.Ct. 1868, 10 L.Ed.2d 1050.
To support its findings of likelihood of confusion and actual confusion, the trial court was able to refer to only one circumstance in the record. A plant manager who had installed some of Compco's fixtures later asked Day-Brite to service the fixtures, thinking they had been made by Day-Brite. ”