ATC loses court case; changes name

ERJ staff report (TB)

Los Angeles, California -- OTR tyre marketer American Tire Corp. (ATC) has lost its appeal of a trademark infringement case involving wholesale distributor American Tire Distributors Holdings Inc. (ATD) and is changing its name to Colorado Tire Corp.

ATC did not say where Colorado Tire Corp. will be registered but did say it will remove its Web site, www.americantire.us, and replace it with another, as-yet unnamed site. The site now contains only one page, the announcement about the name change.

That announcement states that ATC is changing its name to “consolidate our corporate identity behind our company's most recognizable and valuable asset, i.e., the Colorado brand OTR tyres.”

The announcement does not mention the ATD lawsuit or the June 10 court ruling by Judge Margaret Morrow of the US District Court, Central District of California.

The statement also says, “Any existing and ongoing contracts/agreements/authorisations between any company and American Tire Corp. shall be reentered with Colorado Tire Corp. by the end of June 30, 2009, or otherwise will be deemed invalid.”

The court ruling stipulates that ATC:

• Stop using American Tire Corp. or similar trademark, service mark, trade name, etc. and any “colorable imitation” thereof or any name or mark “confusingly similar to or likely to cause confusion” with ATD's trademark;
• Take down all Web site content using the American Tire Corp. name and relinquish registration of the domain name americantire.us and transfer it to ATD;
• Cease issuing press releases or advertisements or other promotional materials using the ATC name;
• Stop representing, either directly or indirectly, that ATC is associated in any way with ATD;
• Stop doing any acts that could cause confusion or lead consumers to believe that its products are in any way affiliated with ATD;
• Notify any relevant secretary of state offices to delete any reference to American Tire Corp. as a business name or assumed name; and
• Notify the federal court and ATD by mid-July (30 days from the service of the June 10 court ruling) a written report detailing how it complied with the court's order.

The court ruling also authorizes ATD to recover from ATC “resonable attorney's fees and costs.” ATD said it was “pleased” with the court's ruling. ATD filed suit against ATC on May 6, 2008.

ATC/Colorado Tire Corp. is not affiliated with Colorado OTR L.P., a Houston-based OTR tire distributor that at one time sold Colorado-brand OTR tires.

From Tire Business (A Crain publication)