"The BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2 tire and its legacy represent the achievement of many years of technical development in the Michelin organization," Harold Phillips, global general manager of the BFGoodrich brand for Group Michelin, said.
"Michelin will actively defend its products, and we will continue to protect our intellectual property rights."
Techno Pneu declined to comment at this time.
In the suit, Michelin is seeking an order requiring Techno Pneu to pay all appropriate damages, including prejudgment and post-judgment interest, defendant's gross profits derived from infringement of the patent and treble damages. The suit does not specify dollar amounts.
The basis for Michelin's suit is U.S. Design Patent No. D728,457, issued May 5, 2015, to Group Michelin employees Kevin Ray Reim and Fang Zhu.
Rimouski, Quebec-based Techno Pneu is a 66-year-old company active in retreading of car, light and medium truck tires. It's owned and operated by the family of founder Wilfrid Marquis.
The company's best known in the U.S. for its line of remolded winter tires.
Michelin's suit is the latest over this particular BFGoodrich tire.
Michelin recently was granted a favorable ruling in a suit against two Canadian dealers for selling a Chinese tire that Michelin claims violates intellectual property rights regarding the BFGoodrich tire.
That suit—heard earlier this year in the Court of Queen's Bench of New Brunswick in Fredericton, New Brunswick—alleged that the All-Terrain T/A AK3 tire sold under the Wideway brand has a tread design "virtually identical" to the original BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO tire.
The defendants—Tire Boys & Auto Service Inc., a mobile tire-fitting business based in Edmonton, Alberta, and Atlantic Tire King Inc., a retail dealership with outlets in Moncton and Oromocto, New Brunswick—failed to failed to respond in the lawsuit or appear at a recent hearing, which prompted Michelin's motion for judgment.
In 2020, Michelin and Tri-Ace Wheel & Tire Corp. agreed to a negotiated settlement of a case filed by Michelin in 2019 against the importer/distributor that alleged Tri-Ace's Black Bear All-Terrain II product was a counterfeit of the same tire.
The settlement barred Tri-Ace Wheel and associated parties from "making, having made, using, selling, and/or importing, in or into the United States, any tire covered by the claim of the '457 Patent, including but not limited to the Black Bear All-Terrain II tire or any tire having a merely colorable variation of the tread thereof, through the life of '457 Patent."
