12/2/2010
An unknown holding company in New York is claiming full patronage over the “Daytona Beach Bike Week” name and has manifested its intention to “take all legal actions to protect its rights.” This plan, should it come to fruition, can drag the Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce, which, through an agreement with the city, has managed for several years now, the annual Bike Week event.
The holding company, which operates under a number of names, including Consolidated Distributors Inc and Mettemp Inc, has applied for a state trademark for the name.
In the application for trademark filed in April 2009 by Mettemp, it submitted a logo with the words “Bike Week Joe Cool Inc.” This is the only specimen provided by the company as its proof of use of the said mark. The application for trademark, which was approved in April 13, 2009, is signed by the owner of Joe Cool Inc, Yosef Amar, who said he is the vice president of “Mettemp Inc.”
Following such premise, the company can file lawsuits to businesses that produce T-shirts or other merchandise that bore the name “Daytona Beach Bike Week” without Mettemp’s approval.
Some sectors are also saying that Mettemp could even seize those “counterfeit goods” that were produced without the company’s nod. Nevertheless, the CEO of the Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce, Larry Mckinney said in a letter that, “confiscation action would only be possible with a federal trademark, which Consolidated does not possess.”
This position was reiterated by the board-certified intellectual property attorney, Heather Vargas, who represents the chamber, stating that “Registrations don’t mean anything if they’re not based on an actual ownership of the mark.” She further added, “People have been printing merchandise with the phrase ‘Daytona Beach Bike Week’ for decades.”
