Chevron Intellectual Property LLC (San Ramon, CA) has filed suit against a variety of Massachusetts entities for trademark counterfeiting, infringement, dilution and related federal and Mass. state claims pertaining to Chevron’s line of TEXACO® and related marks. The defendants are all owners / operators of service stations that had, at one time, been selling Texaco products and been licensed to use the Texaco marks, no longer are, yet continue using the Texaco marks.
The complaints contain almost no facts related to the particular defendants. As an example, the complaints only allege that the defendants were previously licensees “under information and belief.” Really? Chevron doesn’t know if they were formerly licensed? I understand that these complaints are part of a larger nationwide enforcement plan (other cases were filed in the M.D. Fl., D. SC, D. Ak., D. Or., etc.), but how hard is it to determine if these stations were actually at one time licensed? Maybe they still are. With 2400 stations nationwide, Chevron has to have an up-to-date database somewhere right?
Who knows. Maybe they’re all now BP stations who took to using Texaco’s trademarks to avoid the bad publicity.
Chevron Intellectual Property LLC v. SK Realty, LLC, 10-11174-MAP (D. Mass. July 14, 2010)
Chevron Intellectual Property LLC v. Cabot Fuels, Inc., 10-11177-PBS (D. Mass. July 14, 2010)
Chevron Intellectual Property LLC v. Patel, 10-11179-PBS (D. Mass. July 14, 2010)
Chevron Intellectual Property LLC v. Kotzabaldiris, 10-11180-PBS (D. Mass. July 14, 2010)
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