After Chinese counterfeiters of Toyo Tires never appeared in court, a federal judge fined them $300,000 and ordered a permanent injunction prohibiting their use of the “Toyomoto” mark.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada granted Toyo Tires’ Motion for Default Judgment and Permanent Injunction against Kabushikiki Kaisha Tokyo Nihoon Rubber Corp., a Beijing-based holding company, and its associated business, Japan Toyomoto Tire Corp.
“Despite being properly served while in Las Vegas and having both a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction entered against it, Toyomoto has never appeared in this case,” the judge wrote in the ruling.
“Toyomoto has merely piggy-backed off of Toyo’s success; Toyomoto markets its counterfeit products on various deceptively named websites, passes itself off as being a Japan-based company, and even exhibited its products at SEMA, a trade show that drew 60,000 buyers and that Toyo also attended,” according to the ruling.
Toyo Tires first learned that Toyomoto was infringing its marks when the two companies attended the 2014 SEMA Show/Global Tire Expo in Las Vegas. Toyo staff had discovered on the final trade show setup day prior to the opening of the show that Toyomoto was “marketing and selling tires using the ‘Toyomoto’ mark, related domain names, and logos in direct infringement of Toyo’s long established ‘Toyo’ trade name and trade mark,” according to a release from Toyo at the time of the incident.
Toyo sought a permanent injunction and damages for trademark counterfeiting, infringement and dilution, cybersquatting and unfair competition.
“We are pleased the court ruled in our favor,” said Iori Suzuki, Toyo senior vice president and general counsel. “We take counterfeiting and trademark infringement by companies such as Toyomoto very seriously and remain committed to vigorously protecting our long established and highly reputable ‘Toyo’ trade name and trademark.”