Patriot Motorcycles selling knockoffs of Yammies

[PeteSC]

Biker wars: Japanese bikemaker Yamaha sues over alleged Chinese copy cats
 
Time is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 14-Oct-2005 14:57 hrs
    Japanese motorcycle-maker Yamaha Motor Corp. has sued a rival Chinese manufacturer, accusing it of flooding the US market with copycat quad-bikes and off-road motorcycles, Yamaha said.
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The 50-year-old firm and its US unit on Wednesday sued Yamoto Motor Corp. and its US distributor in a Los Angeles federal court, accusing them of trademark infringement, false advertising and unfair competition.
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Yamaha claims that Yamoto and its California-based distributor Patriot Motorcycles Corp. made inferior knock-off versions of Yamaha's Raptor line of quad bikes, or all terrain vehicles (ATVs), and of its TT-R125 dirt bikes.
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In addition, Yamoto, which entered the US market in 2003, attempted to imitate the logo, website and colours of Yamaha which is the world's second largest maker of motorbikes and quadbikes.
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"Yamaha claims that the distribution of these products is an obvious and deliberate attempt to trade off of Yamaha's reputation and goodwill in the industry," the company said in a statement.
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Yamaha claims Yamoto's cycles and ATVs have similar colours, names and logos to their Yamaha counterparts, and "are of lower quality but bear strikingly similar resemblances" to Yamaha's cycles.
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The Japanese firm complained that the Yamoto 70 ATV was so similar to the Yamaha Raptor 50 that "the poorer quality parts on the Yamoto copy are interchangeable with the parts on the Yamaha."
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"Yamoto not only attempted to confuse the public through the adoption of names, logos, colors and appearances that are confusingly similar to Yamaha's, but also by copying Yamaha's website ... and failing to disclose the Chinese origin of the Yamoto products," the firm said.
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Yamaha is seeking unspecified punitive damages as well as the destruction of all Yamoto products, containers, packages, labels and advertising materials that allegedly infringe Yamaha's trademarks.
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A Patriot representative did not have immediate comment, and a call placed to Yamoto for comment on the suit was not immediately returned. — AFP