LOS ANGELES (June 23, 2009)—OTR tire marketer American Tire Corp. has lost its appeal of a trademark infringement case involving wholesale distributor American Tire Distributors Holdings Inc. and is changing its name to Colorado Tire Corp.
ATC did not say where Colorado Tire Corp. will be registered but did say it will remove its Web site, www.americantire.us, and replace it with another, as-yet unnamed site. The site now contains only one page, the announcement about the name change.
That announcement states that ATC is changing its name to “consolidate our corporate identity behind our company's most recognizable and valuable asset, i.e., the Colorado brand OTR tires.”
The announcement does not mention the ATD lawsuit or the June 10 court ruling by Judge Margaret Morrow of the U.S. District Court, Central District of California.
The statement also says, “Any existing and ongoing contracts/agreements/authorizations between any company and American Tire Corp. shall be re-entered with Colorado Tire Corp. by the end of June 30, 2009, or otherwise will be deemed invalid.”
The court ruling also authorizes ATD to recover from ATC “reasonable attorney's fees and costs.” ATD said it was “pleased” with the court's ruling. ATD filed suit against ATC on May 6, 2008.
ATC/Colorado Tire Corp. is not affiliated with Colorado OTR L.P., a Houston-based OTR tire distributor that at one time sold Colorado-brand OTR tires.