The U.S. Supreme Court case Stark Bros. Nurseries & Orchards Company v. Stark et al., Trustees, Doing Business Under the Name and Style of William P. Stark Nurseries in 1920 revolved around a trademark dispute between two related nursery businesses both using the "Stark" name in their business operations. The plaintiff, Stark Brothers Nurseries and Orchard Company claimed that the defendants were infringing on its trademark rights by operating under a similar name (William P.Stark Nursery). The court had to decide whether or not there was an infringement of trademark rights given that both parties shared a common surname used in their respective business names. In this case, the Supreme Court ruled against the plaintiff stating that since 'Stark' is a family name shared by all involved parties, it cannot be exclusively appropriated as a trade-mark for nursery stock grown upon lands owned or controlled by members of such family bearing this surname; hence no exclusive right can be acquired therein through use thereof as such mark.

In the dissenting opinion for Stark Bros. Nurseries & Orchards Company v. Stark et al., it was argued that the majority's decision failed to properly consider and apply established principles of trademark law, specifically those related to family names. The dissenting justices believed that there should be no absolute prohibition on using a surname as a business name or trademark, especially when such use is not likely to cause confusion among consumers or unfairly harm competition. They also pointed out inconsistencies in how the Court had previously handled similar cases involving trademarks based on surnames, suggesting that this case represented an unwarranted departure from precedent without sufficient justification.