G. Loomis Inc. has dropped its lawsuit against Gary Loomis, the man who founded the fishing-rod company in 1982.
Jim Lebson, executive director of the Woodland-based company, said Monday that one of Gary Loomis’ co-defendants satisfied the company’s desire to protect its trademarks. Plus, Lebson said, the company “didn’t really want to spend a lot more money” on further pursuing the lawsuit, filed July 2 in U.S. District Court in Tacoma.
Jon Bial, an attorney for Gary Loomis and his co-defendants, said Monday that G. Loomis Inc. “brought an ill-advised and poorly researched lawsuit, and it causes one to question its motives in doing so.”
At issue was the company’s ownership of certain trademarks, including the G. Loomis, GL and fish design trademarks used in connection with its fishing products and services. In its lawsuit, the company accused Loomis and others of manufacturing and selling fishing rods and related accessories with the “confusingly similar” trademarks “Gary Loomis” and “GLT,” and of using an “infringing” fish design.
The lawsuit named as defendants Loomis, Loomis’ new company — Woodland-based North Fork Composites — GLTPRO LLC, Andrey Velikanov and 10 unnamed defendants.
Attorneys for Gary Loomis and his codefendants filed a motion on Aug. 4 to dismiss the case, arguing in court documents that G. Loomis Inc. “has its facts wrong” and filed the lawsuit as a “business tactic to keep a competitor from bringing superior products to the industry.”
In a court declaration, Velikanov, a manager of Ridgefield-based GLTPRO, said that “because we lack the funds to contest this case” his company has decided to stop manufacturing fishing rods under the name GLT and will change its name to “Alaska.ru.” Likewise, Velikanov said, the company will no longer sell rods with the label GLT or the GLT fish design, and has stopped using Gary Loomis’ signature “in all of our materials.”
Those declarations, in part, led G. Loomis Inc. to drop its lawsuit, Lebson said.
The legal dispute between G. Loomis Inc. and Gary Loomis, who is renowned in the fishing industry, dates to October 2008. That’s when the company filed its first lawsuit against Loomis. That lawsuit ended in a settlement, in which Gary Loomis agreed to not violate the company’s trademarks and in which the company agreed to not challenge Loomis’ publicity rights. In 2009, the company filed another lawsuit, alleging Loomis broke the settlement agreement. Loomis filed a counterclaim against the company. Both parties agreed to dismiss their respective complaints in that dispute.
