Bridgestone files lawsuit against Apollo over Pinza tire brand

Nashville, Tennessee – Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations LLC has filed a lawsuit against Apollo Vredestein BV concerning the naming used on one of its tire products.

In a 12 Jan complaint filed in the US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, the Bridgestone Americas Inc. subsidiary climed that its trademark ‘nza’ suffix had been unlawfully used on Apollo’s Pinza tire.

The lawsuit pointed to Bridgestone’s key marks include Potenza, Turanza, and Alenza, some dating back to 1981, claiming that Apollo’s Pinza brand was “confusingly similar” to its registered trademarks.

Due to “the distinctive nature and inherent strength” of the marks and because of their “widespread use, advertising, publicity, promotion; and billions of dollars of sales”, Bridgestone said the three brands were “commercially strong and famous”.

In 2006, Bridgestone opposed an intent-to-use application for the mark Milanza for tires owned by Federal Corp. due to potential confusion.

The initial ruling in that case was that the marks Potenza and Turanza “had not achieved significant recognition independent of the famous Bridgestone house mark” and that the Milanza mark would not “cause confusion”.

However, on appeal, the verdict was reversed, with the court ruling that “the prolonged exclusive use of these marks, the extensive promotion and marketing, the billions of dollars of sales of tires bearing these marks, shows commercial strength.”