Michelin Sues Dynamic, Sherkin Over Copyright Infringement

(Akron/Tire Review) Michelin North America (MNA) has filed a copyright infringement suit against Dynamic Tire Cor. and its president, Robert Sherkin, in the US District Court for the Northern District of New York.

At the same time, MNA’s Canadian unit filed suit against Dynamic, which is based in Toronto, and Sherkin alleging infringement of two Canadian Industrial Designs by Dynamic’s distribution of Triangle TR696 and Triangle TR689 tyres. Michelin also seeks an injunction to halt distribution of these tires along with an award of damages and costs.

The US suit alleges that an illustration of the Triangle TR689, produced in China by the Triangle Group and sold by Dynamic, which appears on Dynamic’s Web site, is actually an illustration of the Michelin XDE M/S with the sidewall markings “Michelin” and “XDE M/S” replaced by the words “Triangle” and “TR689.”

The suit alleges copyright infringement, violations of the Lanham Act (selling under false pretenses), violations of New York law, and unjust enrichment based on Dynamic’s Web site illustration of the Triangle TR689 tyre. Michelin seeks an injunction along with an award of attorneys’ fees and costs.

This is the second time this year that MNA has sued Dynamic and Sherkin over tyre design copyrights. In June, MNA filed suit in the Federal Court of the Northern District of Alabama (Birmingham) against China’s Aeolus Tire, Dynamic Tire and Sherkin charging patent infringement “for the unauthorized use of Michelin’s proprietary tread design” for its XDA-HT medium truck tyre. The tyres in question were sold under the Aeolus and Windpower brand names.