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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
REVIEW
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Vol. LXXVI
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 17, 1923
No. 7
EXHIBITS AT THE COMING CONVENTION
S has already been formally announced, exhibits of musical
instruments and parts will be permitted at the Drake Hotel,
A
Chicago, during the week of the convention in June, as was the
case at: the last convention at the Drake two years ago and at the
Hotel Commodore, New York, last year. This decision would
seem to indicate that the fears of those who opposed exhibits at
convention headquarters in the past were more or less unfounded.
• It is doubtless true that the exhibits in a number of cases have
served to detract from the interest in and attendance at Association
sessions; but if the exhibitors will use discretion in the matter,
realize that the business sessions of the conventions are of primary
importance and the real reason for the gathering and regulate the
hours at which their displays are open for inspection accordingly
there should be no reason for complaint.
> That many of the manufacturers are convinced of the value
of convention exhibits has already been proven by the rush to make
reservations at the Drake, and it is expected that the retailers will
have an excellent chance in June to see the new productions and
gauge..-the advances made by the industry as a whole during the
yean'
COURTS UPHOLD COPYRIGHTS ON ADVERTISING
T
HOSE who are genuinely interested in the protection of trade
names in the industry will find much food for thought in the
decision handed down by the U. S. District Court of Ohio in favor
of the Gulbransen-Dickinson Co., of Chicago, in its suit against
the H; P. Maus Co., a dealer of Lima, O., for, as a whole, it is one
of the most comprehensive that has been rendered in this connection.
1
Regardless of the rights or wrongs of the case, the decision
in ay be taken as indicating the attitude of the courts in protecting
the rights of the individual or company in the maintenance of its
name, quality, merchandising standards and reputation from unfair
Competition, real or attempted. The particularly important phase
bf the court's ruling is that wherein it is held that "the mere pur-
hhase by a dealer of a manufacturer's product does not entitle the
dealer to make use of the manufacturer's copyrighted advertising
piaterial, even though limited by the retailer to use in selling the
manufactured product." This phase of the decision was based on
FEBRUARY 17,
1923
the precedent set in the case of the Golden Rule, Inc., vs. B. V. 1).
Co., and thus gains in importance through being cited a second
time.
Particularly interesting, too, is that section of the court's opin-
ion in which the defendant is condemned for obtaining "in part
surreptitiously" players of the plaintiff's make after his agency
with the plaintiff had finally ended, and marketing those instru-
ments partly through the use of advertising matter copyrighted
by the plaintiff. In this connection the court holds that the plain-
tiff was "guilty of various forms of unfair competition."
This is understood to be the first case in the piano trade wherein
the manufacturer has sought to enjoin a retailer from the unauthor-
ized use of copyrighted advertising material and it sets a precedent
that is both interesting and distinctly important.
WHAT CONCENTRATION MEANS IN PIANO MAKING
trade members who have followed the developments
T in HOSE
the industry during the past few years, particularly as they
affect the consolidation of various manufacturing enterprises, see
the passing of the practice long prevalent in certain quarters of
making pianos on a price rather than a quality basis. This tendency
toward concentration, too widespread to be ignored, means that
definite economies have been, and are being, effected in piano pro-
duction. But, despite this, the manufacturer who is traveling in-
dependently and on his own is not faced with the prospect of being
forced out of business. Rather is he faced with the prospect of
building up a definite reputation for quality of his products and a
sales system that will mean greater output and consequently greater
and more economic distribution of overhead.
While the changes in the industry are not numerous, they come
at more or less frequent intervals and in practically every case result
in the elimination of one or more manufacturing concerns as inde-
pendent factors. Those who are closely associated with the pro-
ducing end of the business see in such moves a means for preserving
the health of the trade and placing it upon a sounder basis. Certain
it is that the over-production of other days is not likely to be
developed again under existing circumstances, nor can there come
the old cut-throat methods in the matter of prices, methods that
made piano wholesaling a gambling proposition rather than a busi-
ness venture. The manufacturers to-day must give full value and
build a business by proper sales methods that will provide a suffi-
cient demand to warrant economical operation.
AMERICAN MANUFACTURERS IN CANADA
announcement by the Gulbransen-Dickinson Co. that ar-
T HE
rangements have been made whereby a plant for the manu-
facture of Gulbransen player-pianos would be built in Canada,
possibly within the year, adds one more to the growing list of manu-
facturers of musical instruments with plants in the United States
who have found a sufficient market for their products in Canada
to warrant the establishment of factories on that side of the border.
Another important consideration is that instruments made in Canada
have the advantage of the British preferential tariff when shipped
to export markets in the British Dominions.
At the present time the Foster-Armstrong Co., the Starr Piano
Co., the Victor Talking Machine Co.—through the Berliner Gramo-
phone Co.—the Q R S Music Co., the Vocalion phonograph and
record branch of the Aeolian Co., the Columbia Graphophone Co.
and other prominent American business institutions are carrying
on active manufacturing operations in Canada either directly and
under their own supervision or through the medium of duly ac-
credited representatives with control of the name rights, patents, etc.
No better proof of the value of the Canadian market, which is
growing steadily, is to be found than in the willingness of Amer-
ican manufacturers to put substantial amounts of capital into manu-
facturing in that country. Although there are a large number of
Canadian manufacturers of pianos, talking machines, etc., there
seems to be plenty of room in that growing country for the products
of American manufacturers, either as produced in Canada or ex-
ported from this country and distributed through accredited repre-
sentatives, as, for instance, are the Knabe, the Ampico, the Aeolian
Co. products, the Steinway piano, etc.
This trend indicates the growing importance of the Canadian
market in the eyes of the far-seeing manufacturers in the American
industry. It is a development which is sure to continue, not only as
Canada itself grows, but as does the export market.