Forklift attachments manufacturer Cascade Corp of Fairview, Oregon has sued Trading Point LLC for trademark infringement, unfair competition and counterfeit advertising.

A principal at Trading Point office in Webster, Texas declined to comment on the litigation.

Cascade hopes through the lawsuit to identify whether the Trading Point practice is an isolated situation or a wider problem.

In the lawsuit, Cascade makes eight claims for relief including federal, state and common law trademark infringement, federal statutory and common law unfair competition and false advertising and federal statutory counterfeiting of advertising.

Cascade is seeking costs and attorney fees, punitive damages for violations under common law and statutory damages of USD1 million for the counterfeit advertising. Cascade wants a trebling of its actual damages along with Trading Point profits relating to its use of the Cascade trademark.

Cascade filed the suit on July 29 in Portland in the US District Court for Oregon and is seeking a trial by jury.

The lawsuit cites Trading Point advertisements for "sideshift bearings, segments and slides" in the February 2008 and August 2008 issues of the monthly magazine Material Handling Wholesaler of Dubuque, Iowa. The advertising falsely implied that the displayed products "were genuine Cascade parts" to the extent of listing Cascade part identification numbers, according to the court filing.

The suit alleges that "Trading Point's sale of look-alike sideshift bearings with Cascade's PINs and spurious markings . . . is counterfeiting under federal law" and the "unauthorised use of the trademark dilutes the distinctive quality of the Cascade trademark."

Cascade says it has used Cascade as a corporate identity, trade name and trademark continuously since 1948. The US Patent and Trademark Office issued the firm a trademark registration for Cascade in 1958 and again in 1979. Also, Cascade owns registrations for the trademark in about 30 countries.

Operating as Trading Point Products, the defendant sells standard and heavy-duty fork extensions, container ramps, drum handlers, fork spreaders and wide-load handlers and other forklift attachments and accessories. The contact at Trading Point withheld disclosures about employment, operations or business practices.

Cascade designs and manufactures material handling equipment for forklift trucks. Cascade's attachments and forks help customers lift, sideshift, rotate, tilt and clamp loads of products such as appliances, paper rolls, textiles and lumber.

In addition to Oregon, Cascade has manufacturing sites in four other US states, two Chinese provinces, two Italian provinces, Canada, South Korea, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, England and France.

Publicly traded Cascade employs 2,400 persons and reported profit of USD60.1 million on sales of USD558.1 million for the fiscal year ended 31 January.

The case was assigned to Judge Michael W Mosman. Attorneys with the law firm of Chernoff, Vilhauer, McClung & Stenzel LLP in Portland filed the suit on Cascade's behalf.