Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
Name Protection a Vital Necessity.
N
AME protection and price maintenance are of vital interest to
the creative and distributive forces of every industry.
A court has already decided that the maker of a breakfast
food is entitled to protect the product against price cutters and is
entitled to treat them as infringers where the box in which such
breakfast food is sold is patented.
Manufacturers of packed goods of every kind, therefore, can
secure protection by marketing their products in a patented carton
or other container to invoke the patent law against the price cutting
infringer.
If an article packed in a patented container with a patented seal
affixed is sold at a reduced cost it will make the retail merchant
an infringer of the patent. To stop price cutting on shoes all that
is necessary is to pack them in patented cartons.
In fact, all articles of merchandise may be subjected to this
plan in order to stop price cutting.
In some trades the retailers have removed the well-known
products from cartons and boxes and have repacked them with
other kinds of merchandise not "so well known and presumably
much inferior.
In other words, there has been such trading on names and
reputations that the Government presumably will afford more ample
protection in the future than it has in the past.
Price maintenance and name protection constitute a subject of
vital interest to men in all industries.
So far as name imitators are concerned, in every trade there
have been some men who have borne the same patronymic as the
founders of great enterprises, who have sought to profit by a name
reputation which they in no manner assisted in building up.
The courts have viewed many of these cases as constituting
rank piracy and recent decisions show that there is an obvious de-
sire on the part of the courts to recognize name value as a distinct
and individual part of a business.
Then, again, there is also the manifest desire to protect the
public.
As a matter of fact it is not only the manufacturers who are
to blame, but they place in the hands of dishonest dealers products
with which they may deceive the public, oftentimes through mis-
leading advertising.
The public is led to believe that it is buying originals in many
cases instead of a most offensive imitation.
The piano industry in common with others has suffered. We
have had during the past few years a number of sporadic attempts
to trade upon the reputation of old-established houses.
We have had instances-as well where men bearing the same
family name have put forth instruments which have caused con-
fusion with old-established enterprises and which have enabled deal-
ers to use them in an unfair competitive sense.
Now, every piano merchant, no matter where located, is in-
terested in having certain principles maintained which are vital to
the stability of piano selling.
If men who have labored for many years to build up a name
reputation are not afforded adequate protection, then what does
human endeavor in a special field amount to?
What protection have stockholders in any enterprise if men
bearing the same patronymic can embark in business to-morrow at
half a dozen places and put forth products which are alleged to be
as good, if not better, than the original?
What encouragement is there for a man to invest his capital
in an enterprise if its value can be depreciated to-morrow through
the creation of kinds of competition which are destructive to busi-
ness stability?
It seems perhaps imposing a hardship upon men by prohibit-
ing them from entering certain lines of trade on account of the
existence of family names as trade-marks. True, but a name
reaches such value that it becomes an asset to a commercial enter-
prise, and citizens of this Republic who have invested money in a
corporation one of the assets of which is a name value, are entitled
to protection by the courts and presumably they will receive it.
For many years past at various intervals we have seen adver-
tising put forth by piano merchants in certain sections of the
country reeking with misrepresentation and fraud. We have seen
slurs upon great names of piano history, we have seen many false
statements made, w T e have seen names used very similar to estab-
lished names, with a deliberate intention of deceiving.
All of these things are know r n to the trade, and it is but fair
to assume that the courts of this country will protect the rights
of all. Name protection by all means should be maintained.
Rearrangement of Instalment Terms.
T
O those who hope or look for a rearrangement of instalment
terms in the piano trade, the recent move of a New York
furniture house in reducing length of credit in that particular
should point the way to better conditions.
In the furniture trade the average instalment terms call for
full payment of the accounts in less than two years, and the prices
of the furniture is generally advanced to a point which cover the
cost and bring some profit. And yet the terms have not been satis-
factory to the dealers in many cases.
In the piano trade the term of instalment payments extends
to between three and four years, in many cases with little added
to the price of the piano with the exception of interest, to cover
the tying up of the money for that long period.
The furniture house in question has changed its terms from a
couple of dollars down and two dollars per week on a hundred to
not less than one-third down at time of purchase and the balance
on notes for three and six months, respectively.
The argument is presented that under the new plan the pur-
chaser has the account cleaned up sooner than by the old way and
is not bothered by collectors or by the necessity of visiting the store
weekly to make payments. The point is made that the new terms
apply to all lines handled by the house and cover all special sales.
Why cannot the piano merchants sell pianos on a substantial
initial payment and on a series of notes maturing at periods within
the year? The plan appeals to all those with business instincts' and
elevates the time payment practice to a higher commercial level.
Too many piano buyers pay in instalments not because they
have to, but because such a method is possible and is made simple
for them. They could pay off more rapidly and just as easily if the
proposition were presented to them in a different light.
Getting Results From Holiday Trade.
R
EPORTS from Review correspndents in widely separated sec-
tions of the country are a unit in declaring that business
with merchants everywhere is in excellent shape. Our export and
import trade has now mounted up into tremendously large figures
and the nation's trade for the year will exceed four billion dollars,
Our farmers and stock raisers are blessed with good prices for
their products, mechanics arc enjoying good wages and people in
all lines of effort are accumulating a surplus,
Taken all in all the outlook is most encouraging for the piano
merchant in this the closing month of the year. In view of the
holiday trade he should just at this time paste the word "hustle"
in large type in his office so that he can observe it early in the
morning. And it should not be hidden from the gaze of his staff,
for we are facing an active and prosperous winter, and the men
who put strenuosity in their work will corns QUt at the right end
of the business cafnpajgn this year,