Protecting a trade association’s reputation, trademark, and consumer safety in the oil and gas industry

Petroleum Equipment Manufacturing Company (PEMCO) had unsuccessfully sought to have oil drilling and oil well equipment certified by Finnegan client American Petroleum Institute (API). Despite the fact that it was not certified, PEMCO placed a counterfeit of the API certification mark on its products. API objected and PEMCO agreed to cease using the counterfeit API certification mark. API later discovered that PEMCO was continuing to use the counterfeit API certification mark and retained Finnegan to sue PEMCO for trademark infringement, counterfeiting, and breach of contract. PEMCO agreed to a permanent injunction against further use of the API marks and payment of API’s costs. This result successfully stopped a counterfeiting operation that falsely passed off uncertified products as meeting API’s safety standards.