FORT LAUDERDALE – A Florida clothing company faces a trademark infringement lawsuit in federal court after a manufacturer of smoking pipes claims it stole its trademark.
In a May 31 complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, California-based Sream Inc. and Amsterdam-based RooR International BV, accuse Ecstasy Fashion II, Inc. of trademark infringement. Sream is the U.S. licensee authorized to use and enforce the trademark “RooR.”
The complaint accuses the Ecstasy Fashion of counterfeiting, false designation of origin and unfair competition under the Lanham Act. The company has reportedly “engaged in the unlawful manufacture, retail sale, and/or wholesale of counterfeit RooR branded glass pipes and related parts.”
According to court documents, RooR-branded products are made from glass that’s nearly unbreakable and hand-blown by individual artists. The complaint notes that a RooR brand water pipe sells for $300 or more while non-Roor-branded products of an equal size usually retail for less than $100.
The lawsuit further states that the sales of RooR products in the U.S. has been in excess of $5 million.
“It is exactly because of their higher sales value that RooR branded products are targeted by counterfeiters,” the lawsuit said.
The complaint alleges that Ecstasy Fashion has misled customers by selling low-grade products and in doing so “reaps substantial ill-gotten profits.”
“Ecstasy Fashion II’s conduct contributes to the complete flooding of the marketplace with counterfeit products, which results in lost sales and damages to the plaintiffs and irreparable harm to the RooR brand’s image,” the lawsuit said.
According to the complaint, the plaintiffs’ investigator purchased a glass pipe with a RooR trademark affixed to it for $44.98.
The plaintiffs, who are represented by Jamie Alan Sasson of The Ticktin Law Group, PLLC in Deerfield Beach, seeks Ecstasy Fashion’s profits and/or statutory damages of up to $2 million.