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Specialized drops new trademark case against clothing firm Epix Gear

Mike Sinyard says bike company is reviewing "pending and future intellectual property and trademark issues"...

Specialized founder Mike Sinyard has moved quickly to stop a threatened legal action against North Carolina cycling and triathlon clothing brand Epix Gear for trademark infringement, and says the company is reviewing how it deals with such cases in future. Epix had appealed to social media users for support after receiving a letter from lawyers acting for Specialized – which earlier this week dropped claims of trademark infringement against Alberta, Canada-based bike shop, Café Roubaix.

In a post on Specialized’s Facebook page, Sinyard outlined why the company sought to protect its trademarks, including protecting bothe itself and the public against counterfeiters, but acknowledged that it had at times been too aggressive in doing so.

He said: “We’re going to take a much closer look at all pending and future intellectual property and trademark issues, making sure to only pursue those that present a clear and obvious danger.”

Referring to the Café Roubaix episode, a post on Epix Gear’s Facebook page yesterday said:

Sadly, Specialized is doing the same to Epix now. I received a letter today from their lawyers - Our logo is in their eyes too similar to their "Epic" MTB frames logo. The text is DIFFERENT. The logo stylization is DIFFERENT. We are not competing for the same clients (apparel vs frames). They are over-reaching, as they did with the Roubaix bike shop. They withdrew that case thanks to social media pressure, and we would be very grateful if everyone could support us in our efforts to fight this!

It should be pointed out that the letter Epix Gear received from Specialized’s law firm, Michael Best & Friedrich LLP, is dated 4 December 2013, several days before news about its dispute with Café Roubaix became public.

The letter, which states it was sent by mail and email and is addressed to a California-based patent attorney, Raj Abhjanker, who acts for the trading company behind Epix Gear, JC (Asia) Limited.

Epix Gear posted a copy of the letter to its Facebook page. It is signed by Lori S Meddings, an intellectual property partner at Michael Best & Friedrich, and points out that “Specialized has used the trademark EPIC since at least as early as 1987 in connection with bicycles and owns registrations throughout the world for its mark.”

It goes on to say that the firm has become aware of two trademark applications “for EPIX and the EPIX logo… for sports apparel, namely, ‘shirts, jerseys, singlets, arm warmers, leg warmers, jackets, vests, pants, shorts, hats, gloves, bodysuits’ that were filed by your client, JC (Asia).”

The letter demands that JC (Asia) “cease all use of EPIX and any other colorable imitation of Specialized’s EPIC trademark in connection with cycling and triathlon products,” and sets a date of 10 December 2013 (ie, last Tuesday) for compliance.

The date stipulated passed without Epix Gear meeting the law firm’s demands.

On its Facebook page, in response to messages of support, Epix Gear says: “Thanks everyone for your support and honestly I feel uncomfortable taking this public, but I strongly feel that Specialized is being unreasonable. I don't want to drag them through the mud, but we are a small company - we simply cannot fight this alone. And the Roubaix case makes it look like a pattern with them.”

But in that subsequent message posted by Specialized, Sinyard said: “The letter on Epix Gear was issued before the Café Roubaix story broke and has since been pulled.”

Sinyard's full post published on Specialized's Facebook page is as follows:

I Screwed up, and I own it

I would like to apologize and let everyone know I realize I handled this situation wrong from the start and I’m very sorry for that. As many of you have probably already seen by now, I went up to Café Roubaix to meet with Dan in person to apologize and make good with him. Café Roubaix will continue on with its name. The video is up on Café Roubaix's Facebook page. Dan is the real deal, after meeting him I realize this and am embarrassed by how ridiculous this is. What happened was wrong. There are no excuses but I do feel like I owe it to you all to explain how we found ourselves in this situation, the lessons we've learned from it and, most importantly, how it will change the way we do things moving forward.

Over the past few years we’ve seen a massive spike in counterfeit products, and most of the riders have no idea these products are fake, which is extremely dangerous because the risk of failure on these untested products is extremely high. In one instance, the entire head tube and fork sheared off a counterfeit Tarmac, causing the rider who had no idea he was not on a genuine Specialized product to faceplant and destroy his shoulder. To give you an idea of how much this issue has blown up, 10 Specialized employees hunt fake products across 30 major ecommerce platforms, we've identified over 5,000 listings, worth $11,000,000 USD in counterfeit goods since January 1st of this year alone. This is about double what it was last year. Due to this we have recently gone after IP and trademark issues more aggressively in the interest of protecting the safety of riders and the livelihood of our dealers and their hard-working employees. See the attached picture to understand how dangerous fake goods are.

In the deal with Café Roubaix, the wheels were the red flag that got the attention of our outside attorney’s who were already sort of on red alert for anything that pops up, although Café Roubaix wasn’t in the same camp as the counterfeiters, they still got caught in the crossfire. There is so much activity with infringers that it’s overwhelming and I don’t see them all. The first I heard of it was Saturday morning and by Monday the thing went huge. But still, that was my fault, which is why I’m so embarrassed. I should have called Dan immediately.

I heard you and you can rest assured I took it to heart. I realize now that we went too far with this aggressive approach and as a result and in some cases we hurt the local bikes shops and small businesses we wanted to protect. As a result we’re going to take a much closer look at all pending and future intellectual property and trademark issues, making sure to only pursue those that present a clear and obvious danger. The letter on Epix Gear was issued before the Café Roubaix story broke and has since been pulled.

I handled this very poorly and I own full responsibility. Dan at Café Roubaix and I have become friends and he’s happy with the solution. I hope you too accept my sincere apology. Like you all, I’m passionate about cycling and want to do everything possible to grow the activity we all love.

Sincerely,

-Mike Sinyard
Founder

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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9 comments

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jarredscycling | 10 years ago
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Don't think I would want to be involved in Specialized legal department right now

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jmaccelari | 10 years ago
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There's a MASSIVE difference between fighting forgeries/copies/rip offs of your product and suing someone for use of a name - especially a generic one - on a different product. If any of these firms were trying to rip off Spez kit, I would have supported Specialized 100%, but I do not believe there was any intent to do so in any way. Specialized were using a law to fight a fight it was never meant for.

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skippy | 10 years ago
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Regardless of the " Mea Culpa " i had stripped the " shitlized frame " used in several Giro & TDF rides since 2006. tourdafarce.blogspot.com

Bullied by Suppliers & Motorists , Cyclists need to ACT TOGETHER to improve their situation .

This petition is largely ignored by those that need to benefit from ALL that is on offer in other parts of the world :

https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/ioc-chairman-thomas-bach-create-a...

Where would Queenslanders be on the 1st Jan 2014 , if the likes of @safecyclingOz had not had input from elsewhere ? A guy acting with his Wife , following what is available to Europeans , has changed Cycling safety in Queensland , AND , perhaps in the rest of Oz ?

Lend YOUR help , as those in Scotland & UK wishing to follow, could benefit from Poli.s seeing that there is Worldwide Support , rather than a few locals with a " chip on the shoulder "!

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edster99 | 10 years ago
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I'm going to take what he says at face value.

The proof of the pudding will be in the number of new and ridiculous cases that do (or do not) come to light in the future.

He's certainly given the world a very big stick to hit him with if they F* up again having said that he will be 'making sure to only pursue those that present a clear and obvious danger'.

'Lawyers' could be substituted in the expression 'Fire makes a great servant but a bad master'. Mike needs to take that department in hand.

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allez neg | 10 years ago
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I used to work for a retailer that was for a long time quite possibly the largest uk stockist of Dainese motorcycle clothing. We saw a few fakes brought in, with the buyer often expressing surprise at being told his product was counterfeit (but then a £350 jacket that ye got from eBay for £100? Caveat Emptor as they say....)

We also saw many much cheaper brands erm, *inspired* by Dainese's designs, including the very distinctive typeface of the brand logo.

I get where Sinyard is coming from in wanting to protect his brand, and fair do's for his contrition, I think Cafe Roubaix were just kinda hit by SBC's legal scattergun.

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mrmo | 10 years ago
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I can sort of see where Specialized are coming from, how many fake Dogmas do you see people talking about on various forums. Doesn't take a genius to realise that many are buying from China fully aware that it is a fake, others may take the opportunity to sell it as a real Dogma.

As to how well built some of the cheap Chinese frames are, who knows. Many will be fine, others?

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toothache90 replied to mrmo | 10 years ago
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i agree, the amount of fakes out there is ridiculous and some unscrupulous people will take advantage of that. So Specialized are only trying to protect the brand that has a reputation for quality made products.
The guy admitted he screwed up and from that they have learned to deal with their internal processes better. Which is what business is all about, not just making money.

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Paul M | 10 years ago
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Oh hell, I work in a specialised field of tax law. Am I going to have to stop saying that?

Or could the English language (US Branch) take an intellectual property case (for "passing off") against the company which has hijacked a popular adjective in the language?

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drfabulous0 | 10 years ago
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Hmm, perhaps Specialized Bicycle Components to give the company its full name may object to my use of the word Bicycle in my own business name, to be honest I could use the publicity.

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