The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Two months ago one of Edison's Polyform bottles sold for $1460 on ebay, see first image.

Did someone of you save more images from that auction? Do you know of another bottle in better shape?

I believe Allen Koenigsberg an Peter Dilg have examples.

George P.

World's worst pick-up line: "Excuse me, miss . . . does this rag smell like Polyform to you?"

Edison was involved in the field of Patent Medicines? Please say it isn't so!

Edison took them to court over the use of his name in the advertising of this product. Steve



Case Name: Edison v Edison Polyform Mfg Co.

Key Words: Right of privacy, celebrities' economic right

Country: U.S.A.

Citation: 67 A 392 (1907)

Court: Court of Chancery, New Jersey

Case N°: -

Importance: Early case of right of privacy, celebrities have an economic right.

Facts: The celebrated inventor Thomas Edison invented a medicinal preparation, Polyform, and sold it to the defendants company. They then changed the name of the company to Edison Polyform and wanted to use Edison’s name and picture in their advertisements for this product.

Decision and reasoning:

Edison brought an action to restrain the use of his name for the company, and the use of his name and picture for the advertisement. He claimed that the assignment only concerned the preparation and selling of the medicine, not his name or picture for advertisement.

Law of unfair trade:
The arguments based on law of unfair trade were rejected by the court because the defendants’ action did not amount to passing off. They did not try to pretend that their goods were T. Edison’s manufacture. Edison was merely connected with the enterprise and simply supervised that the preparation was made according to his formula.

Specific issue: Celebrity’s right of privacy
The Court held that Edison’s right of privacy had been invaded by this unauthorized use of his name and likeness. However, it was more because of the peculiar fact that the plaintiff was a celebrity. For this reason, the right of privacy represented here a means of remedying injuries to essentially economic interests as well as injuries to pure dignitary aspects, in preventing the unauthorised commercial exploitation of a famous person’s attributes. It is also to be noted that this kind of interest was considered by the court of a proprietary nature. Stevens VC clearly affirmed that “if a man’s name be his own property (…) it is difficult to understand why the peculiar cast of one’s features is not also one’s property, and why its pecuniary value, if it has one, does not belong to its owner, rather than to the person seeking to make unauthorized use of it”.

I bought the one on eBay. Here are photos of one, missing label and the one from eBay with label. This is the first exaple I have seen of a bottle that retains any portion of the label. Most of it is there. Allen and / or Peter may have examples as well.

Thank you for the nice images. Great purchase. Please don't clean the bottle. We still don't know the mixture of Polyform and a technical analysis of dried up remains could bring us on the right path.

Did you find the first image among the Thomas Edison Papers? Do you have the document ID?

Just when I wrote the above I found the following recipe (The Ohio Medical Recorder, Vol. 5, Columbus and Cleveland, 1880-81, p. 525). But is it true?

Like I said in my previous post . . . and make mine a double!