Quaker Oats Co. v. General Mills Inc‪.‬

The plaintiff-appellee, the Quaker Oats Company, filed an application in the Patent Office to register as a trade-mark the word "Oaties" to designate a ready-to-eat breakfast food made of oats. The Patent Office refused to register this word as a trade-mark. The plaintiff appealed to the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals. The defendant-appellant, General Mills, Inc., elected to have the proceedings under Section 4915, Revised Statutes, 35 U.S.C.A. 63, which had the effect of forcing the plaintiff into the District Court. The plaintiff into the filed its petition to compel the Patent Office to register the name "Oaties," and also filed a complaint for a declaratory judgment holding that it was entitled to use the names "Oaties" and "Quaker Oaties" on a prepared breakfast food made of oats, and that such trade-marks did not infringe or colorably imitate the registered trade-marks of the defendant, to wit, "Wheaties," "Kornies," and "Maizies." While the mark sought to be registered was the word "Oaties," the mark used commercially to market the plaintiffs product at the time the complaint was filed and subsequent thereto was "Quaker Oaties."