Trek files trademark lawsuit against New York company

By Kevin Murphy Special to the Daily Times
Thursday, June 14, 2007 12:50 PM CDT

MADISON - Elec Trek and Electrec are too close for the Waterloo bicycle manufacturer's comfort, according to a trademark infringement lawsuit Trek filed Friday in federal court against a New York firm that markets electric bikes.

Trek, a world-known maker of bicycles and bike parts, has developed a 1,500-dealer network with 3,000 retail outlets nationwide, with many of its products manufactured in Waterloo. For the past 30 years it has developed a product line that included electric bikes marketed under the name Elec Trek from 1998-2001.

During the past seven years, the Electrik Motion Co. of New City, N.Y., began advertising and selling at least 500 of its bikes using the Electrec name without authorization from Trek, according to the suit.

Electrik Motion's bikes are similar to pedal bikes which have an electric motor which assists the user in turning the pedals.

Electrik Motion advertises its bikes on its Internet Web site, www.electrikmotion.com, and owns the electrekbike.com Web site which incorporates Trek's name.

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The name Electrik Motion is similar enough to Trek to confuse consumers into thinking they are buying Trek bikes, the suit alleged.

Trek sent Electrik Motion a cease and desist letter in December 2006 after learning the New York firm had filed an application for the trademark “Electrec & Design” for the use on electric bikes and scooters.

Trek expressed concern to the New York firm about its proposed use of the phonetic equivalent of Trek in its trademark and requested that it not use it to market its bikes. Within a month, the defendant replied refusing to eliminate the Trec portion of its company name.

In June, Electric Cyclery, of California, sold the defendant Electrec bicycles and advertised them as Electrek Electric bicycles, using Trek's trademark in its name. However bikes branded Electrek didn't appear during a review Tuesday of Electric Cyclery's Web site.

Trek opposed the defendant's trademark request in an action that is still pending before the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeals Board.

Andrew Koblick, president of Electrik Motion, said Tuesday neither he nor his attorney felt he had done anything to infringe on Trek's trademark, “otherwise we wouldn't have (sought the trademark application).”

Koblick declined to answer further questions on the advice of his lawyer.

A call to Trek wasn't returned before deadline.

In the suit, Trek, which spent more than $12 million in advertising and promotion last year, said it is likely consumers will erroneously assume Trek products are being offered by the defendant due to the similarity of the company's name, wording of its Web sites and selling its products to a company that incorporates Trek in its name.

“Defendant's unauthorized use of Electrec Š is likely to cause confusion Š mistake, or to deceive consumers into believe the defendant's goods are Trek's goods Š or in some way Š affiliated with Trek,” according to the suit. Trek seeks an injunction against the defendant to halt its unauthorized and infringing use of its designations that are similar to Trek's.