122 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



will give the person so using a certain proprietary right in it, which 

 can be enforced in a court of equity and may be defended by injunc- 

 tions, which will generally be granted. Such proceedings are expen- 

 sive, annoying to a busy man, and at best will protect one only after 

 at least a certain amount of damage has been done, and it is far safer 

 to avoid this by registering the label at the time of issue, which will 

 give one the further advantage in that a description of the character 

 and quality of the article labeled can be set forth, which will, to a 

 certain extent at least, be protected with the label. 



The commercial value of a label and name is represented by the 

 more or less general demand for the goods protected by it. In the 

 canned-salmon industry, as in that of other food-packing industries, 

 certain labels, through the good quality of the goods marketed under 

 them and the publicity created for them, have become of very con- 

 siderable value to the owners. A case in point is the label Royal 

 Crown, owned by the late R. D. Hume. This was one of the earliest 

 brands marketed in England, and some years later a certain Liver- 

 pool firm of salmon handlei^s paid Mr. Hume the sum of $10,000 for 

 the exclusive right to its use in England. 



In designing a label there are several things which should be borne 

 in mind. It should bear an easily remem})ered name and design; a 

 name difficult of pronunciation should be avoided at all costs. For 

 many years glaring red labels have been popular, but the success met 

 with by those using more subdued and artistic designs and coloring 

 indicates that the public a4)preciate them more than they do the 

 older and coarser types. The design should be as simple as possible, 

 as experience has demonstrated that a simple form — so s mple that 

 it can be fully understood by a mere glance — will gain by regular 

 repetition, while a more complicated design will lose in this process. 



A good many now in the Imsiness still remember the small label 

 that was used on salmon cans before 1870. Labels about 3 by 5 

 inches in size, printed in one color, on white or colored newspaper, 

 served merely the purpose of distinguishing cans, telling contents 

 and manufacturer, and were without commercial value. About the 

 year 1870 a few catniers commenced to import from the East and 

 Europe full-sized labels, i. e., labels that went all around the can. 

 These were called by some "Pennhigton" labels, as a firm of that 

 name supplied quite a number of them. 



For some years they were used for the best grades only. They 

 were printed in four and five colors, the design showing invariably 

 a number of panels of different shapes and sizes. The lettering was 

 not always plain and sometimes even intentionally irregular and 

 puzzling. The colors were placed side by side, in boldest contrast, 

 without any attempt to harmonize them. 



It was soon discovered that the highly colored panels, while strik- 

 ing, lost all effect when massed on the retailer's shelves, and the 

 dilferent brands looked so much alike that the individual designs 

 could not well be remembered by the customer, the only really dis- 

 tinctive feature being the name, and that was generally printed so 

 small and indistinct that it could not be readily seen at a distance. 



To remedy those defects, the designers soon reduced the number of 

 panels and subdivisions, increasing meanwhile the size of the remain- 

 ing ones and filling them with distinctive designs, still colored as 

 simply as before, with no attempt at blending of colors. The back- 



