HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014 12-06 3M challenges company over use of the name Stick-It STAR TRIBUNE c StarTribune CITY OF MAPLEWOOD
3M challenges company over use
of the name Stick-it
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Article by:David Phelps
Star Tribune
December 6,2014 7:59 AM }
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3M is suing a small Kansas printer over a customized NO6S s
printed product marketed under the name"Stick-it," b
claiming it violates the trademark of its well-known"Post- ' `.'a
it"note enterprise.
In this file photo 3iM's Post-it notes are displayed at
Office Depot in Mountain View,Calif.
In a lawsuit filed Friday in U.S.District Court in
Minneapolis,the Maplewood-based company claims the Paul Sakuma,ASSOCIATED PRESS-AP
Stick-it product manufactured and sold by A'Deas
Printing of Wichita,Kan.,"is likely to cause confusion"among 3M's customers and other consumers.
But the head of the printing company, Roth Christopherson,said the lawsuit is a classic case of an
industrial giant going after a small player with limited resources to wage a legal battle.
"We're very upset,"Christopherson said in an interview."We'll go at this to the nth degree,but it might put
us out of business."
In the suit,3M notes that it has marketed note pads with the Post-it name for more than 30 years.
"The Post-it mark is inherently distinctive and serves to identify and indicate the source of 3M's products
and services to the consuming public,"the suit states.
3M is seeking unspecified damages in excess of$75,000,which is common language in federal civil suits.
3M also wants a permanent injunction prohibiting the Kansas company from using the Stick-it name.
Christopherson said his family-owned company of 10 employees has been selling Stick-it products since
the 1990s and obtained a trademark for the brand in 2006.
The website of A'Deas Printing shows a line of products ranging from door hangers and brochures to
business cards that are affixable to other surfaces.
Customers order the items with customized messages and information on them,while Post-it notes are
often blank.
"The Stick-it product is why we got into business 16 years ago,"Christopherson said."For a long time
we've been using that name,and it would hurt us badly if we had to change it now."
But 3M asserts that A'Deas Printing is diluting 3M's profits and enriching its own by capitalizing on the
similarity of the Stick-it name to Post-it.
The Stick-it name"enables him to trade on and receive the benefit of goodwill built up at great labor and
expense by 3M over many years,"the lawsuit contends.
David Phelps•612-673-7269