O'Hara v. Gardner Advertising, Inc.

Order, entered on June 30, 1967, denying defendants’ motion for summary judgment, unanimously reversed on the law, with $50 costs and disbursements to appellants, motion granted and complaint dismissed. Plaintiff does not have a property right in the phrase “Have A Happy”. “ Disassociated with the subject thereof, whatever it may be, a title or name composed of ordinary words, cannot acquire the status of property. So disassociated, it becomes merely words; and all words of our language are in the public domain. All who speak or write have an inherent right to use any and all words in the…