Milwaukee , WI (December 22, 2017) BSB— Harley-Davidson is
suing California-based clothing company Affliction, alleging the company has
sold t-shirts and other items with images that resemble the Harley
bar-and-shield logo.
The lawsuit, filed by an affiliate of Harley-Davidson Inc.
in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Wisconsin, says a Harley dealer
allegedly received a wholesale shipment of Affliction products in October. The
dealer told the company the shirts infringed on Harley trademarks and
Affliction asked that they be returned.
Harley-Davidson says it matches their logo
The complaint says lawyers for Harley sent a
cease-and-desist letter on Oct. 18 to Affliction alleging the company had been
selling 20 infringing products and promoting two images as available from its
“Artist Den.”
Nearly a month later, Affliction’s lawyers indicated the
company would stop selling six of the items but allegedly continued selling the
others.
The lawsuit makes six claims against Affliction and asks for
an order blocking the company from infringing on Harley trademarks;
Affliction would also have to destroy existing products with
infringing images; cover the cost of corrective advertising, pay Harley $2
million per trademark per type of product, pay Harley any profits it earned
from infringing items, pay compensatory and punitive damages and pay Harley’s
attorney fees.
Two of the Affliction products that allegedly infringe on Harley-Davidson trademarks.
In a statement, Harley spokesman Michael Pflughoeft said
Harley’s brand is one of the company’s most important assets and it is “legally
required to exercise control over the use of our trademarks.”
“We make every effort to ensure consumers are not confused
by the source of merchandise bearing our trademarks. By altering and
reproducing the Harley-Davidson logo for use on clothing, we believe Affliction
has violated our trademark, and this violation could cause confusion among
customers that Affliction is somehow affiliated with or endorsed by
Harley-Davidson,” Pflughoeft said.
Harley is no stranger to court fights over its trademarks.
In the last two years the company has sued Forever 21, Urban Outfitters and
online retailers SunFrog and GearLaunch.
The Urban Outfitters lawsuit was the second one Harley filed
against the company after the two settled a 2014 dispute.
SOURCE: BIZ Times
