The corporation founded by
William F. Cody, the actual Buffalo Bill, and two partners in 1913, which made a film of his wild west exploits,
The Adventures of Buffalo Bill (1917), brought a suit in federal court in Colorado seeking an injunction to prevent the 1922 film serial from using the name "Buffalo Bill" and his likeness in any advertising. Applying the law of unfair competition, the court dismissed the suit noting that the name, which at best had only a common law
trademark, had acquired a secondary meaning regarding the American West which had lost its exclusivity from being used in several plays without challenge, and that the theater-going public could readily distinguish between the films. ==Chapter titles==