Those who are familiar with the genial old gentleman, whose flowing white beard, benign countenance and smart clothes have done so much to popularize the Dunlop tyre, will read with some astonishment that the original of the picture considers it a libel upon which he is basing an action.
The Law Lords, sitting in the House of Lords, have decided that Mr. John B. Dunlop, the 81-year-old inventor of the pneumatic tyre, might serve a writ in London for a hearing of his libel action against the Dunlop Rubber Ca. in Ireland.
Mr. Dunlop had claimed in the Irish Chancery Division an injunction against the company to restrain them from publishing in that country advertisements caricature ing him. He also claimed damages.
The Irish courts had authorized the serving of the writ in London, out of their jurisdiction, and the Dunlop Company appealed to the House of Lords against this order.
The Dunlop Company had a portrait bust and signature of the aged inventor as a trade 1 rk, and Mr. Dunlop's complaint is that:—"Without my permission they publish pictures of me on the body of a very tall man, dressed in a foppish manner, with a tall white hat and an eyeglass. I do not wear a tall hat, nor an eyeglass, not do I dress like a dude. I never carry cane or pose as shown."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.