The Chrysler Group LLC is suing a three-store retailer called ‘Pure Detroit’, which sells locally inspired merchandise, for using the automaker’s “Imported from Detroit” slogan that premiered earlier this year in a Super Bowl commercial staring rapper Eminem.

According to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by the press, Chrysler argues that the local business began selling t-shirts with the ‘Imported from Detroit’ tag line shortly after the two-minute Super Bowl ad hit the air. The company added that it had applied to register ‘Imported from Detroit’ as a trademark for “various uses, including branded clothing”, on January 18, 2011.

“Upon seeing Chrysler’s stunning ad, capped off by the powerful tagline, defendants immediately and opportunistically sought to usurp Chrysler’s goodwill and exploit Chrysler’s investment for themselves,” Chrysler said in the suit.

“They both copied Chrysler’s tagline exactly and used it on some of the very goods for which Chrysler had filed a trademark application, clothing. Falsely promoting themselves as an ‘exclusive’ provider, and promoting their products by touting ‘the tagline that is making headlines across America!’, defendants have sold huge numbers of T-shirts.”

In a posting on the automaker’s official blog, Mike Driehorst, editorial director for online media for the Chrysler Group, said that the company had tried reasoning with Pure Detroit “to prevent the situation from going to court”.

“No one likes a legal solution to an issue,” said Driehorst. “It could look like David v Goliath in the Chrysler lawsuit against Pure Detroit. However, do know that we made repeated attempts to work out a non-legal solution with Pure Detroit.”

One of the solutions proposed by Chrysler was asking Pure Detroit to donate a portion of its proceeds to charity, something that the automaker does with earnings from its own ‘Imported from Detroit’ clothing collection.

Driehorst added that while Pure Detroit told Chrysler in a Feb. 24 email that it “is willing to agree to cease all sales,” and simultaneously removed the infringing merchandise from its website, the automaker discovered that “as of at least March 1, its IfD gear was still being sold at its retail locations”.

Sources: Chrysler , Detroit News

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