Consumers Digest Sues Over Trademark Use

A plumbing fixtures manufacturer has been hit with a lawsuit over alleged misused of Consumers Digest’s trademarks and service marks in its advertising.

Briggs Plumbing Products Inc., of Charleston, SC, used the magazine’s Best Buy seal without permission on its Web site and in ads and brochures, the suit charges. The firm also allegedly used a knock-off version of the seal.

Consumers Digest Communication LLC has asked the court for a restraining order, and for damages and attorneys’ fees. Attorneys for both sides reportedly have opened discussions about a settlement.

According to the complaint, a Briggs toilet, the Vacuity Whisper Vac 6040, won a coveted Best Buy designation in the July/August 1997 issue of Consumers Digest, and again in the March/April 2000 issue.

Briggs never exercised its option to license the Best Buy marks, but it later used them without authorization, the papers allege.

The complaint continues that Briggs lost its eligibility to license the marks when its product failed to be named as Best Buy in a March/April 2004 review of plumbing products. The review “superceded” the earlier ones, it says.

The seals appear in proximity to lines like: “One flush is all it takes.”

Briggs executives had no comment. Attorneys for Consumers Digest had not answered calls by deadline.

The case was filed earlier this month with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern division.