Mirror mirror on the wall, whose is the fairest trademark of all?
A Peekskill company that makes glassless mirrors is accusing an Irvington competitor of reflecting poorly on its business.
MirrorLite Mirror Inc. accused LiteMirror GMM Inc. of trademark infringement in a April 25 complaint filed in U.S. District Court, White Plains.
LiteMirror’s alleged infringement “has become progressively more significant,” the complaint states, and has “made consumer confusion inevitable.”
MirrorLite, owned and operated by Janet Reith, claims that it has been using MirrorLite® since 2008.
The Peekskill company uses flexible, metal-coated plastic film that is shatterproof and much lighter than glass, according to its website, and sells the glassless mirrors to fitness and dance studios, theaters and other performance spaces, and trade shows and exhibitions.
The LiteMirror trademark uses the exact same letters, the complaint states, “merely flipping the words mirror and lite.”
Both businesses sell the same kind of products, the complaint states, marketed through the same sales channels, and purchased by the same types of customers.
Consumer confusion, MirrorLite claims, is inevitable.
Recently, for example, a customer of a MirrorLite dealer who was paying for services mistakenly delivered the check to LiteMirror. Then LiteMirror allegedly cashed the check, “profiting off of the consumer confusion created by its own infringement.”
MirrorLite is accusing its purported doppelgänger of trademark infringement, false advertising, and unfair competition.
It is asking the court to order LiteMirror to stop using its trademark or any deceptively similar combination of words; turn over materials that use the trademark; account for its profits and pay unspecified damages, including treble damages for willful infringement.
“LiteMirror denies the allegations of the complaint and looks forward to defending itself in court,” company president Rick Powers said in an email.
MirrorLite is represented by Ossining attorneys Jeffrey A. Lindenbaum and Jess M. Collen. LiteMirror is represented by White Plains attorneys Peter Sloane and Cameron Reuber.