Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ If, in a technical sense, the burden of proof is on the plaintiff to prove that the defendant's pills are not made by his formula, there it at least a prima facie presumption of difference, just as in the case of slander there is a presumption that slanderous words are false. ”

“ To call pills Beecham's pills is to call them the plaintiff's pills. The statement that the defendant makes them does not save the fraud. That is not what the public would notice or is intended to notice, and, if it did, its natural interpretation would be that the defendant had bought the original busness out and was carrying it on. It would be unfair, even if we could assume, as we cannot, that the defendant uses the plaintiff's formula for his pills. ”

“ The other grounds of appeal are charges that the plaintiff's boxes have upon them false statements such as to exclude them from equitable relief. The one most pressed is that certain of the boxes carry the words 'Beecham's Patent Pills,' and that the pills are not patented. The answer is that the word does not convey the notion that they are. To signify that, the proper word is 'patented' rather than 'patent,' and it commonly is used separately, not prefixed to a noun. On the other hand, the use of the word patent to indicate medicines made by secret formulas is widespread and well known. ”