After attempting to resolve the matter through negotiation, business phones and VoIP PBX
provider Nuvio Corporation has decided to go ahead with a trademark infringement lawsuit against Garmin (News - Alert) International, Inc. The suit was filed to protect Nuvio’s brand identity.
More specifically, Nuvio (News - Alert) said in a Thursday statement, Garmin is infringing upon the company’s trademark with its recently announced Nuvifone product (a combined mobile phone and navigation device). Nuvio filed suit against Garmin in the U.S. District Court of Kansas.
Jason Talley (News - Alert), Nuvio’s CEO, expressed regret that the trademark issue couldn’t be resolved out of court, but emphasized that his company must protect its brand.
“While we would have preferred to settle this without resorting to a lawsuit, we felt it was important to ensure that our customers and potential customers are not confused by someone abusing our legally protected trademark,” Talley said. “Our customers commonly refer to our service as the Nuvio phone.”
Nuvio’s trademark is used for the company’s phones and for its telephony services. In the suite, Nuvio claims that Garmin knowingly and willfully appropriated the “Nuvi” name, aware that it was already in use by Nuvio.
The lawsuit follows a cease-and-desist letter to Garmin dated January 31, 2008. Nuvio is now seeking permanent injunction against Garmin (to prevent that company from continuing to use the Nuvio trademark), and also damages for past infringement.
Nuvio’s flagship product is nPBX, a hosted, full-service phone system that offers all the features of a traditional PBX (News - Alert) but without requiring purchase of expensive hardware. More information about nPBX can be found on the TMCnet.com Business Phone System and VoIP PBX channels, brought to you by Nuvio.
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Mae Kowalke is an associate editor for TMCnet, covering VoIP, CRM, call center and wireless technologies. To read more of Mae’s articles, please visit her columnist page. She also blogs for TMCnet here. Private Branch Exchange (PBX) | X |
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