Tecumseh in trademark battle

USA: Tecumseh says it is taking legal action over trademarks with Thai compressor manufacturer Kulthorn Kirby Public Company Ltd and its US distributor Elco Refrigeration Solutions.

Tecumseh says it is seeking to protect its valued AE/AE² and AW registered trademarks from use by Kulthorn and Elco that Tecumseh believes is likely to cause confusion and mistake in the marketplace.

The AE/AE² and AW models are included in Tecumseh’s range of hermetic reciprocating compressors. The AE series compressor was launched in 1960. The AE² series, along with the AEX compressor models, are the latest introductions. Tecumseh claims that over 200 million AE/AE² series compressors have been sold worldwide. 

In the action, Tecumseh says OEMs, service technicians, refrigeration contractors, authorised wholesalers and exporters world-wide associate the AE/AE² and AW product brand names with Tecumseh.

Kulthorn Kirby was established in 1980 by the cooperation between Simakulthorn Group, Kirby Group Australia, refrigerator producers in Thailand, and the Industrial Finance Corporation of Thailand. It, too, offers compressors carrying AE and AW designations as part of its range of compressors.

The Cooling Post has contacted Kulthorn Kirby and Elco Refrigeration Solutions for comment but they have so far not done so.