Van Dye Way Corporation

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IN THE MATTER OF VAN DYE \VAY CORPORATION COMPLAINT .AND ORDER IN REGARD TO THE .ALLEGED VIOLATION OF SEC. :5 OF .AN .ACT OF CONGRESS .APPROVED SEPT. 26, 1914 Docket 2129. Com.plaint, Nov. 9, 1933-order, June 25, 1935 1 Complaint charged respondent corporation, engaged in dressing, dyeing, and trade-marking or otherwise marking and designating, among others, rabbit skins, at the instance and request of and In accordance with special agt·eements with the owner furriers or dealers who sell the same, thus dressed, dyed, marked, stamped, or branded by it for them, to garment manufacturers, with misbranding or mislabeling, in stamping upon the backs of rabbit skins so dressed and dyed by it as to cause the. fur thereof to resemble the appearance of the much superior seal, with Its better pliability, du· rability, wearing quality, and luster, its mark, brand, or designatlo11 displaying, in addition to initials of its name, the words "Lapin Seal", 1n large capital letters, and, in small and inconspicuous letters, noticeable only after close inspection, the words "Dyed Cony", with full knowie:Jge and in aid of sale in interstate commerce by said owners and manufacturers, respectively, of such skins thus dressed, dyed, marked, stumped, or branded by it for them, and garments made therefrom under the name or description "Seallnes", on account of their resemblance to the dyed fur of genuine seal, resulting from its aforesaid agency or service, and its said mark, brand, or lleslgnation;

With the effect of furnishing wholesale or retail dealers in garments made from said skins, dyed by it to resemble and imitate seal and marked, !!tamped, branded, or designated as hereinabove set forth, the means of perpetrating a fraud upon the purchasing public by representing said ::arments as the substantially more costly sealskin product, and by ex:blblting to customers and prospective customers the aforesaid brand and designation stamped thereon, containing the words "Lapin Seal", in support of their 10ald false representations, and of aiding, assisting, and abet· tlng sale in Interstate commerce of rabbit skins and of garments made thereof as and for seal, and with capacity and tendency to divert trade to said owners offering and selllng in interstate commerce such rabbit skins, thus dressed, dyed, and marked by It, and to manufacturers offer· tng and selling in such commerce garments made therefrom, and to latter's "1\'wholesale and retail dealer vendees, from furriers or dealers selling in such commerce the skins of rabbit and other fur-bearing animals, truth· fully described and marked, and from manufacturers thus selling garments made from seal, or skin of rabbit or other fur-bearing animals, truthfully branded and described, and from latters' wholesale and retail dealer vendees; to the prejudice of the public and of its competitors and those of its principals, thus aided, assisted and abetted by it in such practices.

Ordered, respondent consenting, that respondent, its officers, etc., In connection with the dyeing or dressing, sale, offer, or advertisement of dyed muskrat 1 The order is published as modified as of that date. Original order, not printed, was made as of May 16, 193:1.

VAN DYE WAY CORPORATION 67 66 Complaint fur or dyed cony (rabbit) fur, in interstate commerce, cease and desist from describing fur other than by the use of the correct name of the fur as the last word in the designation thereof, and from the use of the word "seal" as designation thereof, subject to permitted use thereof in an adjective sense, together with such words as "dyed" or "blended", as 1n said order in detail set forth.

Mr. James M. Brinson for the Commission.

Mr. Emanuel J. Freiberg, of New York City, for respondent. Complaint Acting in the public interest pursuant to the provisions of an Act of Congress approved September 26, 1914, entitled "An Act to create a Federal Trade Commission, to define its powers and duties, and for other purposes", the Federal Trade Commission charges that Van Dye '\Vay Corporation, hereinafter designated respondent, has been and is using unfair methods of competition in interstate commerce in violation of the provisions of Section 5 of said Act, and stat€s its charges in that respect as follows:

PARAGRAPH 1.· Respondent, Van Dye 'Vay Corporation, i.s now, and for more than a year last past has been a corporation, organized, existing, and doing business under the laws of the State of New Jersey with its principal office and place of business in the city of Patterson, in said State, and engaged in the business of dres,c;ing, dyeing, and trade-marking or otherwise marking and designating rabbit skins and the skins of other fur-bearing animals for the owners thereof. Respondent has rendered and renders such service for owners of rabbit skins, at their instance and request and in pursuance of and in accordance with special agreements therefor. Such owners have been and are furriers or dealers engaged in the business of selling rabbit skins or the skins of other fur-bearing animals' in commerce among and between the various States of the United States. It has been and is the practice of said owners of rabbit skins dressed, dyed, marked, stamped, or branded, for them by respondent, to sell them to manufacturers of fur garments, having their places of business in the city and State of New York or elsewhere in said Stat€, and in the various other States of the United States, and such manufacturers have offered for sale and sold and offer for sale and sell garments made from rabbit skins dressed, dyed, marked, stamped, or branded by re!:'pondent in commerce among and between the various States of the United States, causing them when sold to be transported £rom their several places of business to purchasers located in various other Stat€s of the United States than the State or States wherein are situated such places of business. ' 68 l'EDERAL TRADE COMMISSION DECISIONS Complaint 21F. T. C.

It has been and is the practice of respondent to render such service::; in dressing, dyeing, marking, stamping, or branding rabbit skins for their owners with the full knowledge, expectation, purpose, and intent that such skins or garments made therefrom will be offered for sale and sold in interstate commerce, and the acts and practices of respondent hereinafter described in paragraph 2 hereof have been and are directly related to and in furtherance of such business by the owners of such skins and the manufacturers of garments therefrom. In the course and conduct of its business respondent has been and is engaged in competition with other individuals, partnerships, and corporations, dressing and dyeing rabbit skins or the skins of other fur-bearing animals for their owners, for sale in interstate commerce or to manufacturers of garments therefrom to be sold in such commerce.

The owners of rabbit skins, dressed, dyed, branded, marked, or designated by respondent, and the manufacturers of garments therefrom have been and are in competition with individuals, partnerships, and corporations engaged in the sale of similar or competitive products in like commerce.

PAR. 2. The respondent uses and has used a process for dressing and dyeing rabbit skins which causes the fur of such skins to resemble in appearance the fur of genuine sealskins, and thereupon respondent stamps or causes to be stamped on the back of each of the skins so treated by it the following mark, brand, or designation: Enclosed within a border rectangular in shape, the capital letters "V. D. vV." are· conspicuously displayed, while superimposed across the middle portion of the letters "V. D. W.", almost extending from one end to the other end of the rectangular border, and enclosed within a similar but smaller border, conspicuously appear the words "Lapin Seal" in large capital letters. Immediately under the lower part of the larger border within which both letters and the designation "Lapin Seal" appear, respondent has caused and causes to be stamped in small and inconspicuous letters the words "Dyed Cony" which are noticeable only after close inspection. . Garments made from rabbit skins so dyed, marked, branded or designated by respondent" resemble garments made from dyed s~al­ skins but in appearance only. Dyed rabbit skins are greatly inferior to the skins of seals in pliability and durability of the leather and in wearing quality and luster of the fur, and garments made from sealskins command prices far in excess of or substantially greater than the prices commanded by garments made from rabbit skins. PAR. 3. It requires approximately fifty rabbit skins .for the construction of coats for women, while it requires only seven sealskins VAN DYE WAY COltPORATION 69 66 Complaint .for such purpose, and large quantities of rabbit skins are dressed, dyed, stamped, or marked by respondent, as described in paragraph 2 hereof, for manufacture into coats or other fur garments for women. Such garments bearing the aforesaid mark, brand, or desig· nation of respondent on the back of the skins from which they have been and are made, have been and are sold by manufacturers thereof in the course of their business among and between the various States of the United States, under the name of or described as "Sealines" on account or by means of their resemblance to the dyed furs of genuine seals, resulting from the agency or service o.f respondent and its mark, brand, or designation conspicuously displaying the words "Lapin Seal" as described in paragraph 2 hereof. PAR. 4. There are now and have been for many years last past competitors of respondent dressing and dyeing rabbit skins or skins of other fur.bearing animals including the skins of muskrats and seals for their owners, to be sold in interstate commerce, to furriers or dealers or to manufacturers to be made into fur garments for sale in interstate commerce, whose practice has been and is either to stamp or mark such skins so as clearly to indicate their kind or character, or to omit any mark or designation of their kind or character. Skins so dressed and dyed by such competitors of re· spondent with or without stamp or other designation thereon, re· specting the kind or character of the skins, and garments made from them have been and are offered for sale and sold in interstate com· merce by furriers or dealers or manufacturers who have been and are competitors of the individuals, partnerships and corporations for whom respondent performs and has performed the aforesaid service of dressing, dyeing, stamping, and branding such rabbit skins.

PAR. 5. The acts and practices of respondent described in para· graph 2 hereof have aided, assisted, and abetted the sale in inter· state commerce of rabbit skins as and for sealskinso and the sale of garments made from such skins as and for garments made from sealskins. 1\fore particularly, such acts and practices have furnished wholesale or retail dealers, to whom manufacturers have sold gar· ments made from rabbit skins, dyed by respondent to resemble and imitate sealskins and marked, stamped, branded, or designated by respondent as described in paragraph 2, the means by which such dealers can perpetrate fraud upon the purchasing public by repre· senting that such garments are made of seal fur, and by exhibiting to customers and prospective customers the brand or designation stamped on such skins containing the said words "Lapin Seal" to support their false representations that such garments are made from genuine seal fur.

Order 21F.T.C.

Such acts and practices by respondent have had and have the capacity and tendency to divert trade to the owners of rabbit skins, dressed, dyed and marked, branded or designated by respondent, who have offered for sale and sold the same in interstate commerce and to manufacturers of garments made from such skins offering for sale and selling the same in interstate commerce, and to their vendees, the dealers, wholesale and retail, from dealers or furriers selling the skins of rabbits, and of other fur-bearing animals in interstate commerce, truthfully described and marked and from manufacturers selling in interstate commerce garments made from sealskins, rabbit skins and the skins of other fur-bearing animals, truthfully branded and described, and from their vendees, the wholesale and retail dealers.

P .AR. 6. The above and foregoing practices of respondent have been and are and each of them has been and is to the prejudice of the public and of respondent's competitors and the competitors of respondent's principals and those it has aided, assisted, and abetted in such practices in interstate commerce, which practices have been and are unfair methods of competition in interstate commerce in violation of the provisions of Section 5 of the Act entitled "An Act to create a Federal Trade Commission, to define its powers and duties, and for other purposes", approved September 26, 1914. ORDER TO CEASE .AND DESIST 2 Pursuant to the provisions of an Act of Congress approved September 26, 1914, entitled ":An Act to create a Federal Trade Commission, to define it.s powers and duties, and for other purposes" the Federal Trade Commission, on the 9th day of November 1933 is~ued its complaint against Van Dye 'Vay Corporation, a corporation respondent herein, and caused the same to be served upon respondent as required by l~w, in which complaint it is alleged that respondent has been and is using unfair methods of competition in commerce in violation of the provisions of Section 5 of said Act. On May 17, 1934, respondent filed an answer to said complaint in which it consented that the Commission may make, enter and serve upon it an order to cease and desist from the violations of iaw allecred in the complaint, in accordance with the provisions of Section (b >"'of Rule V of the Rules of Practice of the Commission; and the Commission having accepted said answer, issued an order to cease and desist on May 16, 1~35? and ~hereafte~, on to ~it the 17th day of June 1935 the Comm1sswn, bemg now fully advised in the premises modifies the said order to cease and desist, and ' • Published u modified.

VAN DYE WAY CORPORATION 71 Order It ia now ordM'ed, .That respondent, Van Dye 'Vay Corporation, its officers, agents, representatives, and employees, in connection with the dyeing or dressing, sale, offering :for sale, or advertising of dyed muskrat fur or dyed cony (rabbit) fur, cease and desist from: 1. Describing furs in any other way than by the use of the correct name of the fur as the last word of the description, and when any dye or blend is used simulating another fur the true name of the :fur appearing a.s the last word of the description must be immediately preceded by the word "dyed", or "blended", compounded with the name of the simulated :fur.

2. Using the word ''seal" alone or in connection, combination or conjunction with any other word or words to describe or designate dyed cony, unless and until the word "seal" is compounded with the word "dyed" and such compounded word is immediately followed by the word "cony", as "seal-dyed cony".

3. Using the word "seal" or the words "Hudson Seal" standing alone or in connection, combination or conjunction with any other word or words to describe or designate dyed muskrat unless and until the word "seal" or the words "Hudson Seal" are compounded with the word "dyed" and such word or words so compounded are immediately followed by the word or words signifying or designating the true name of the fur, as "seal-dyed muskrat" or "Hudson Seal- -dyed muskrat".

4. Using the word "seal" or the words "Hudson Seal" standing alone or in connection, combination or conjunction with any other word or words {regardless of corporate name, trade name or trademark), except that the word "seal" may be used as an adjective to denote or describe the color or character of the dye of muskrat or cony fur, as "seal-dyed muskrat" or "seal-dyed cony", and except that the words "Hudson Seal" may be used as an adjective to denote or describe the color or character of the dye of muskrat fur, as "Hudson Seal-dyed muskrat".

5. Using the word "Hudson" standing alone or in connection, combination or conjunction with any other word or words to describe or designate dyed cony (rabbit) fur.

It is fwther ordered, That the respondent shall, within 90 days from the date of the service upon it of the order herein, file with the Commission a report in writing, setting :forth in detail the manner and form of its coJT\pliance with this order. Syllabus 21F.T.C.